JANUARY 12, 2019 Mirror-SpeTHE ARMENIAN ctator Volume LXXXIX, NO. 25, Issue 4569 $ 2.00 NEWS The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 INBRIEF Efforts Underway for Meeting Between Foreign Ministers YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — International mediators are trying to organize another meeting of Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers later this month, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, January 8. “The [US, Russian and French] co-chairs of the [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] OSCE Minsk Group have proposed a meet- ing of the foreign ministers in January,” the min- istry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalyan, told the Armenpress news agency. “An announcement on the meeting will be made in a coordinated manner.” Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov held three face-to-face meetings in the second half of 2018. According to the co-chairs, at their most recent talks held in Milan on December 5 Mnatsakanyan and Mammadyarov pledged to “work intensively to The service at St. Gregory’s Church in Yerevan promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict and to further reduce tensions.” “They agreed to meet again in early 2019 under Karekin II Champions ‘Strong Family’ in Christmas Mass the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs for this purpose and in order to facilitate high-level YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Prime Minister urged Armenians to stick to their tradition- path of salvation began with the family. It talks,” the mediating troika said in a December 6 Nikol Pashinyan and other Armenian officials al family values in the face of “pseudo-lib- is from the family that the illumined road … statement. attend a Christmass mass at St. Gregory’s eralism” as he celebrated a Christmas mass was borne out of,” he said in a homily read Both ministers described the Milan meeting as Cathedral in Yerevan, January 6, 2019. on Sunday. out at Saint Gregory the Illuminator’s “useful.” Mammadyarov said that it resulted in a The supreme head of the Armenian “In the miracle-laden scene of the Holy Cathedral in Yerevan. rare “mutual understanding” between the two par- Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, Nativity, dearly beloved, we see that the see CHRISTMAS, page 3 ties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The ministers met in the Italian city the day before Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke to each Anti-Armenian other at a summit of ex-Soviet states held in Russia. “The year 2019 will give a new impetus to the Tension Rising in Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict set- tlement process,” Aliyev wrote on his Twitter page Kazakhstan after on December 14. New Year’s Eve Tom Catena Registers Murder Marriage in Armenia YEREVAN (Panorama.am) — Dr. Tom Catena, the ASTANA, Kazakhstan (RFE/RL) — 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate, and his wife have offi- Armenia’s foreign minister, national police cially registered their marriage here. chief and human rights ombudsman have “So happy to finally have our marriage with Nasima spoken with their Kazakh counterparts by officially registered in Yerevan, Armenia. Thank you all phone on Monday, January 7, following for being with us on this special day,” Catena tweeted Topping Off Ceremony raising the final structural steel beam (January 4, 2019). anti-Armenian protests sparked by the mur- on Tuesday, January 8, sharing images from the cere- der of a young man in Kazakhstan. mony at the Civil Registry Office. NAASR to Name Its New Headquarters after The Kazakh man was stabbed to death in Catena, a Catholic missionary from New York, was Historian, Philanthropist Vartan Gregorian a clash between two groups of youths, one named as Aurora Prize Laureate on May 28, 2017. of which consisted of ethnic Armenians, He saved thousands of lives as the sole surgeon per- during celebrations of New Year on BELMONT, Mass. — The National Association manently based in Sudan’s war-ravaged Nuba January 1. Three other men were hospital- Mountains where humanitarian aid is restricted. for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will ized with stab wounds. name its new headquarters after Dr. Vartan The Aurora Prize, granted by the Aurora The brawl broke out in a restaurant in Humanitarian Initiative, is created on behalf of the Gregorian, president of the philanthropic founda- the central Kazakh city of Qaraghandy in tion Carnegie Corporation of New York, fulfilling survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in grati- the early hours of 2019. tude to their saviors. the request of the building’s principle benefac- Local police said they arrested two eth- tors, Edward and Pamela Avedisian of Lexington. nic Armenian men and are hunting for The new building’s official name will be the another in connection with the violence. NAASR Vartan Gregorian Building. On Sunday, some 200 protesters gath- “Vartan Gregorian embodies the values at the ered in front of Qaraghandy’s regional INSIDE heart of NAASR’s mission. He has dedicated his police department and demanded thor- entire life to educational advancement and the ough investigations into the killing. Some pursuit of knowledge, engaging in public service Dr. Vartan Gregorian, left, of them demanded that Armenians be see NAASR, page 9 and Edward Avedisian deported from the country. The Qaraghandy regional governor, Mr. Five Erlan Qoshanov, met with the protesters and said that “all those responsible for the Armenian Government to Hold death will be prosecuted.” “I promise you … Percent that the main suspect, who remains at More Talks on Russian Gas Price large, will be detained in two-three days,” Page 12 Qoshanov said. YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenia’s gov- per thousand cubic meters. The A statement posted on the governor’s ernment and Russian-owned gas distribu- announcement followed fresh talks held website stressed that the brawl “was not tion network have yet to agree on new by the Gazprom chairman, Alexei Miller, ethnically motivated.” It warned that peo- INDEX retail prices of Russian natural gas supplied and Grigoryan as well as phone conversa- ple trying to incite ethnic hatred might face Arts and Living ...... 12 to Armenian households and corporate tions between Russian President Vladimir criminal prosecution as well. Armenia ...... 2,3 consumers, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Participants at the Karaganda rally were Community News...... 6 Grigoryan said on Monday, January 7. Pashinyan. ostensibly there to demand that the author- Editorial ...... 18 The Gazprom giant announced on New Earlier on December 31, Pashinyan ities inform them about the progress of International ...... 4,5 Year’s Eve that it has raised its wholesale assured Armenians that they will not pay their investigation and to punish those gas price for Armenia from $150 to $165 see GAS, page 2 see TENSIONS, page 5 2 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Karabakh Parties Call for Carpet Production Grew In 2018 Kocharyan’s Release YEREVAN (Panorama.am) — Armenia saw a strong growth in production volumes of carpet and carpet STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL) — what was then Soviet Armenia. He Pashinyan accused the critics of coverings in the first eleven months of 2018, the lat- Nagorno-Karabakh’s three leading became Karabakh’s top government misinterpreting what Mikaelyan est statistics reveal. parliamentary parties have called on official in 1992 during its war with meant to say. He specifically lambast- The country manufactured 24.3 tons of carpet and authorities in Armenia to release Azerbaijan. ed the Karabakh leadership, accusing carpet coverings from January to November last Robert Kocharyan, the Karabakh-born Kocharyan, 64, governed Karabakh it of “meddling” in the Armenian par- year, up by 59.9 percent from the same period of former president facing coup charges, until becoming Armenia’s prime min- liamentary race. 2017, when 4.2 tons were produced. from custody. ister in 1997. He served as the coun- Mnatsakanyan was sacked on Armenia’s carpet production volumes constituted In a joint statement issued over the try’s president from 1998-2008. December 14. mostly a decrease in 2017, yet recorded increase per weekend, the Free Fatherland, The Karabakh parties called for the annum. In particular, 19.8 tons of carpets and car- Democratic Artsakh and Movement-88 ex-president’s release two days after pet coverings were manufactured in Armenia last parties said Kocharyan should be the unrecognized republic’s president, year, showing a rise of 10 percent from 2016. freed pending investigation “given his Bako Sahakyan, met with Pashinyan New Arrest considerable contribution to the in Yerevan. Sahakyan’s office said More Women Lawmakers establishment of the two Armenian vaguely that they discussed coopera- Warrant Issued In Parliament For former YEREVAN (Armenpress) — The number of female Criminal lawmakers will be 32 in the new Parliament of Armenia: their number was 18 in the previous con- Investigator vocation Parliament, reports Armenpress. The females will comprise nearly 25 percent of YEREVNA (RFE/RL) — A 132 MPs in the Parliament of 7th convocation. Yerevan court has approved a My Step alliance will have 23 female lawmakers in fresh arrest warrant against the the Parliament, the Prosperous Armenia party — 5 man who led a criminal investiga- female MPs and the Bright Armenia party — 4 female tion into the 2008 post-election MPs. violence in Armenia during for- Snap parliamentary elections were held in mer President Serzh Sargsyan’s Armenia on December 9. Based on the election rule. results, three political forces — My Step alliance, The former official, Vahagn Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia parties Harutiunyan, was charged in late have been elected to the Parliament. October with forging factual evi- My Step alliance will have 88 seats, Prosperous dence to cover up the Armenian Armenia 26 and the Bright Armenia party 18 seats. army’s involvement in the deadly breakup of opposition protests Republican Lawmakers Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan staged in the wake of a disputed presidential election. He left Form Media Company Armenia for Russia in July, osten- republics.” tion between Armenia and Karabakh sibly to receive medical treatment, YEREVAN (Armenpress) —Outgoing Republican The largest of those parties, Free “in different areas.” Pashinyan’s press and apparently remains there. lawmakers Arman Saghatelyan, Karen Bekaryan, Fatherland, is led by Ara Harutiunyan, service issued no statements on the On November 2, a court of first Mihran Hakobyan and Samvel Farmanyan have who was Karabakh’s prime minister meeting. instance in the Armenian capital established a media company called Quartet Media. until June 2018. Democratic Artsakh The two men met for a second time allowed the Special Investigative The company has acquired Tert.am, an online news is headed by the Karabakh parliament since Pashinyan’s public spat with Service (SIS) to arrest outlet, ArmNews CJSC and Radio 107 FM LLC. speaker, Ashot Ghulyan, while Karabakh Armenian leaders which Harutiunyan pending investiga- In a statement, the four lawmakers said they decid- Movement-88 claims to be in opposi- erupted during Armenia’s recent par- tion. The Court of Appeals ed to establish the company by “attaching impor- tion to the authorities in Stepanakert. liamentary election campaign. annulled the arrest warrant on tance to the key role of mass media in the develop- Kocharyan was again arrested on One of the Armenian premier’s key December 13, however. ment of our public-political life and public agenda, as December 7 on charges of illegally political allies, Sasun Mikaelyan, Shortly afterwards, well as considering media to be an inseparable part using Armenian army units against declared during the campaign that Harutiunyan was also charged of our [vocation] and chosen path.” opposition supporters who protested this spring’s protest movement that with two counts of abuse of against alleged fraud in a disputed brought Pashinyan to power was more power. According to an SIS Yerevan Requests presidential election held in February important than the Armenian victory spokeswoman, Marina 2008. He strongly denies the accusa- in the 1991-1994 war for Karabakh. Ohanjanyan, the district court Extradition of Ex- tions, saying that Prime Minister Mikaelyan’s remark was condemned again sanctioned the former SIS Nikol Pashinyan is waging a political by Armenian opposition politicians as investigator’s arrest on December President’s Nephew “vendetta” against him. well as senior officials in Stepanakert, 30. Born and raised in Karabakh, including the spokesmen for Harutiunyan rejected the initial YEREVN (RFE/RL) — Prosecutors have asked Kocharyan was one of the leaders of Sahakyan and General Levon accusation leveled against him as authorities in the Czech Republic to extradite the the 1988 movement for the Armenian- Mnatsakanyan, the then commander “unfounded, illegal and fabricat- nephew of former President Serzh Sargsyan accused populated territory’s unification with of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army. ed” when he spoke to RFE/RL’s of illegal arms possession and drug trafficking. Armenian service by phone on “We sent all necessary extradition documents to November 1. He insisted that his the Czech Republic’s law-enforcement bodies on team of investigators never found December 28,” a spokeswoman for the Office of the any evidence of illegal actions Prosecutor-General, Arevik Khachatyan, said on Armenian Government to Hold taken by the Armenian military Thursday. during the 2008 unrest, which left Czech police tracked down and arrested the sus- More Talks on Russian Gas Price eight protesters and two police pect, Narek Sargsyan, in Prague on December 6. He servicemen dead. reportedly produced a fake Guatemalan passport GAS, from page 1 chief executive, Hrant Tadevosian, said The SIS completely changed identifying him as Franklin Gonzalez. more for gas despite the 10 percent in November 2018 that it has operated the official version of events fol- Sargsyan fled Armenia before his family’s villa was price rise. He said the internal gas tariffs at a loss, amounting to around $55 mil- lowing last spring’s mass protests searched by the National Security Service (NSS) in will remain unchanged because of “our lion, since then. that toppled Sargsyan. It now says early July. The NSS claimed that 37-year-old had certain internal regulations.” Grigoryan suggested in this regard that Sargsyan’s outgoing prede- asked one of his friends to hide his illegally owned Grigoryan said the government and that Gazprom-Armenia’s losses can be cessor, Robert Kocharyan, illegally guns, cocaine and other drugs in a safer place. the Gazprom-Armenia gas distributor cut or even nullified because of a signif- ordered army units into the Sargsyan’s brother, Hayk, was arrested and will start discussions on the issue this icant difference between the costs of gas streets of Yerevan before declaring charged with attempted murder and illegal arms pos- week. Gazprom-Armenia will not ask purchased from Gazprom and sold to a state of emergency on March 1, session in July. Armenian utility regulators to allow it to Armenian consumers. 2008. Hayk and Narek are the sons of Serzh Sargsyan’s raise the tariffs until those talks are “The structure and causes of those Kocharyan was arrested on younger brother, Aleksandr. The latter is thought to over, he said. losses need to be examined in depth so December 7 on charges of over- have made a big fortune in the past two decades. “There is an explicit understanding that that we figure out the right ways of opti- throwing Armenia’s constitutional A bank account in Armenia for Aleksandr the issue needs to be examined in detail,” mization that would not generate loss- order. The former president Sargsyan containing $30 million was frozen this added Grigoryan. “Everything must be es,” he said. “I think that it can be denies them, saying that Prime summer as part of a separate inquiry conducted by done so that that tariff does not rise.” done.” Minister Nikol Pashinyan is wag- the NSS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly Gazprom-Armenia cut its retail prices Gazprom provides more than 80 per- ing a political “vendetta” against demanded in September that he “return the money for households and corporate con- cent of Armenia’s gas which is mostly him. to the state budget.” sumers in late 2016 shortly after its for- used for home heating and electricity mer executive director, Karen generation. Also, most vehicles in the Pashinyan was a key speaker at Karapetyan, was appointed as Armenia’s country run on pressurized or liquefied the 2008 protests. prime minister. The company’s current natural gas. S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 3 ARMENIA Catholicos Karekin II Champions ‘Strong Family’ in Christmas Mass

CHRISTMAS, from page 1 During the liturgy attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other senior state officials, Karekin also prayed for “our faithful brothers and sisters of the great world family who mark this sacred day in affliction and suffering.” He referred to victims of armed conflicts, human rights abuses and “unquenchable desire for unmitigated power” around the world. “Ungodly paths of pseudo-liberalism — which divert people from the life which the Lord com- manded us to live, from spiritual life — likewise lead to dead ends, undermining the foundations of a healthy society and strong family,” Karekin went on. “The very first platform for bringing up wor- thy sons and daughters for the homeland and for educating a citizen for the country is the family,” he said. “It is in the family that the future of a nation is shaped, that the foundations of a pow- erful country are laid. It is under the family’s nur- turing roofs that the sown seeds of God’s word bear fruit in children’s souls, that the spiritual- moral values, the fearless spirit of choosing the good, are being nurtured. It is by the examples shown in the family that mutual love, trust and care are instilled.” “Let us remain dedicated to the sanctity and the strengthening of the family. Let us preserve unblemished the idea of the God-ordained fami- ly, its sanctity, the national traditions,” he added. Accordingly, Karekin declared 2019 a “year of the family,” saying that Armenian church bodies The service at St. Gregory’s Church in Yerevan and clergymen should launch “family-centered assistance projects and events.” He also encour- aged them to organize more pilgrimages to Armenia, faith in Christ has not been like a garment him. The 43-year-old prime minister had been icism from representatives of the former ruling Armenian holy sites “in order to warmly kindle to be donned or doffed as circumstances or conve- very critical of the Catholicos in the past. Republican Party (HHK) and other conservative the flame of love toward the homeland.” nience dictate, but an essential part of its identity,” Shortly after the success of the “velvet revolu- critics of Pashinyan’s government. They por- Karekin expressed concern at “the crisis of the the pontiff declared at the Armenian Apostolic tion” Karekin came under strong pressure from trayed it as further proof of what they see as the family” in many Christian nations in a joint dec- Church’s main cathedral in Echmiadzin. an obscure group accusing him of corruption government’s contempt for “traditional laration with Pope Francis issued during the lat- Pashinyan likewise praised the ancient church and close ties with the country’s former govern- Armenian values.” ter’s June 2016 visit to Armenia. The two reli- and acknowledged its “special significance” for ment and demanding his resignation. Dozens of In his Christmas message, Karekin made no gious leaders also reaffirmed their opposition to many Armenians when he met with Karekin in its members partly occupied his Echmiadzin explicit mention of the Pashinyan-led revolution. same-sex marriage. November. It was apparently their first one-on- headquarters in July. Police waited for several He only cited “the new changes of our life” that Francis repeatedly paid tribute to Armenia’s one meeting since Pashinyan swept to power in days before forcing them out of the premises. have increased “hope and optimism for new Christian heritage during the landmark trip. “For May on a wave of mass protests organized by The slow police reaction prompted strong crit- achievements, success, and victories.”

Political leaders at the Christmas service Catholicos Karekin II

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his wife shake hands at the conclusion of the service. The service at St. Gregory Cathedral 4 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR INTERNATIONAL International News Spurning Erdogan’s Vision, Turks Leave

Armenia Appoints In Droves, Draining Money and Talent Ambassador to Holy See country. Families are setting up businesses By Carlotta Gall “There is so much discrimination, not abroad for the next generation to inher- YEREVAN (Arka) — Armenian President Armen only cultural but personal, the anger, it, said Sirkeci of Regent’s University, Sarkissian has signed a decree appointing Karen the violence is impossible to handle,” adding that many students at his pri- Nazaryan as Armenia’s Ambassador to the Holy See ISTANBUL (New York Times) — For Bayindir said. “If you had something vate university fell into that category. (with residence in Vatican). 17 years, President Recep Tayyip better and you see it dissolving, it’s a At least 12,000 of Turkey’s million- Nazaryan has replaced Mikael Minasyan, the son- Erdogan won elections by offering vot- hopeless road.” aires — around 12 percent of the coun- in-law of the former president Serzh Sargsyan. ers a vision of restoring the glories of Thousands of Turks like her have try’s wealthy class — moved their assets Turkey’s Ottoman past. He extended applied for business visas in Britain or out of the country in 2016 and 2017, Armenian Proverb his country’s influence with increased for golden visa programs in Greece, according to the Global Wealth trade and military deployments, and he Portugal and Spain, which grant immi- Migration Review, an annual report pro- Engraved in The Hague raised living standards with years of grants residency if they buy property at duced by AfrAsia Bank. unbroken economic growth. a certain level. Most of them moved to Europe or the THE HAGUE (news.am) — An Armenian saying But after a failed 2016 coup, Sign up for The Interpreter United Arab Emirates, the report said. has been engraved in The Hague, the Facebook page Erdogan embarked on a sweeping Subscribe for original insights, com- Turkey’s largest business center, of the Embassy of Armenia in The Netherlands crackdown. Last year, the economy mentary and discussions on the major Istanbul, was listed among the top reported this week. wobbled and the lira plunged soon after news stories of the week, from colum- seven cities worldwide experiencing an “Among 28 other languages, an Armenian proverb he won re-election with even greater nists Max Fisher and Amanda Taub. exodus of wealthy people. about way—‘Water will find its way’—has been powers. As cronyism and authoritarian- Applications for asylum in Europe by “If one looks at any major country engraved in front of the railway station, the most ism seep deeper into his administration, Turks have also multiplied in the last collapse in history, it is normally pre- populous place in the city,” the embassy’s post Turks are voting differently — this time three years, according to Mr. Sirkeci, ceded by a migration of wealthy people reads\. with their feet. who has studied the migration of Turks away from that country,” the report They are leaving the country in to Britain for 25 years. said. Trial of Ambassador’s droves and taking talent and capital He estimates that 10,000 Turks have Erdogan has reviled as traitors busi- with them in a way that indicates a made use of a business visa plan to nesspeople who have moved their Alleged Assassin Gets broad and alarming loss of confidence move to Britain in the last few years, assets abroad as the Turkish economy in Erdogan’s vision, according to gov- with a sharp jump in applications since began to falter. Underway in Ankara ernment statistics and analysts. the beginning of 2016. That is double “Pardon us, we do not forgive,” he the number from 2004 to 2015. warned in a speech at the Foreign ANKARA (Panorama.am) — Ankara’s Second In the last two to three years, not Applications by Turkish citizens for Economic Relations Board, a business Criminal Court for Serious Crimes started the first only have students and academics fled political asylum also jumped threefold association in Istanbul in April. “The hearing on the case of the murder of Russian the country, but also entrepreneurs, in Britain in the six months after the hands of our nation would be on their Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov on January 8, businesspeople, and thousands of coup attempt, and six-fold among Turks collars both in this world and in the a Sputnik new agency reported. wealthy individuals who are selling applying for asylum in Germany, he afterlife.” The hearing is taking place in a small hall at the everything and moving their families said, citing figures obtained from the “Behavior like this cannot have a Palace of Justice. Apart from several journalists and and their money abroad. United Nations refugee agency. The valid explanation,” Erdogan added. civilians, many police officers and lawyers are pre- More than a quarter of a million number of Turks applying for asylum His comments came amid reports sent at the hearing, the source said, adding the judge Turks emigrated in 2017, according to worldwide jumped by 10,000 in 2017 to that some of Turkey’s largest compa- started by reading out the passport data of the defen- the Turkish Institute of Statistics, an more than 33,000. nies were divesting in Turkey. Several dants and asking them about their marital status and increase of 42 percent over 2016, when A large proportion of those fleeing such companies have made significant profession. nearly 178,000 citizens left the country. have been followers of Fethullah Gulen, transfers of capital abroad, amid fears There are a total of 18 defendants, including one Turkey has seen waves of students the Pennsylvania-based preacher who is they would be targeted in the post-coup woman. Four of the defendants are participating in and teachers leave before, but this exo- charged with instigating the 2016 crackdown or as the economy began to the hearing by video link from prisons in different dus looks like a more permanent coup, or people accused of being fol- contract. regions of Turkey, where they are being kept in cus- reordering of the society and threatens lowers, often on flimsy evidence. One is the Turkish food giant Yildiz tody. to set Turkey back decades, said Ibrahim Sirkeci, director of transna- Tens of thousands of teachers and Holding, which came under fire on tional studies at Regent’s University in academics were purged from their jobs social media as being linked to Mr. Istanbul Hosts First-Ever London, and other analysts. after the coup, including hundreds who Gulen’s movement. “The brain drain is real,” Sirkeci said. had signed a peace petition calling on Soon after, Yildiz rescheduled $7 bil- Paradjanov Exhibition The flight of people, talent and capi- the government to cease military action lion of debt and sold shares of its in Kurdish cities and return to the Turkish biscuit maker, Ulker, to its ISTANBUL (Panorama.am) — The first ever-exhibi- tal is being driven by a powerful combi- peace process. Hundreds have taken up London-based holding company, essen- tion dedicated to Sergei Paradjanov, a world- nation of factors that have come to posts abroad. tially transferring the family’s majority renowned Armenian director, artist and scriptwriter, define life under Mr. Erdogan and that Mr. Erdogan has tried to make holding of Ulker out of reach of Turkish has opened in Istanbul, Turkey. his opponents increasingly despair is Turkey more conservative and reli- courts. Titled “Paradjanov with Sarkis,” the exhibition here to stay. gious, with a growing middle class and (Yildiz representatives did not imme- opened in Pera Museum in the city’s Beyoglu district They include fear of political perse- a tight circle of elites who are especial- diately respond to requests for an inter- on Thursday, December 13, to run through March cution, terrorism, a deepening dis- ly beholden to him for their economic view, but after publication of this arti- 17, 2019, Ermenihaber reports. trust of the judiciary and the arbi- success. cle, they said that its companies were in Coordinated by the director of the Sergei trariness of the rule of law, and a dete- The flight of capital and talent is the no way associated with the Gulenist Paradjanov Museum in Yerevan, Zaven Sargsyan, the riorating business climate, accelerated result of this conscious effort by Mr. movement, which it called a “terrorist” event exhibits various works by the artist, including by worries that Erdogan is unsoundly Erdogan to transform the society, said group, and that the transfer of its debt paintings, collages, trimmings, sketches themed manipulating management of the Bekir Agirdir, director of the Konda and shares to its London-based holding after his movies, stage costumes, mosaics, photos, economy to benefit himself and his polling company. company had no impact on its compa- etc. inner circle. With the help of subsidies and favor- ny’s commitment to and operations in The exhibition is organized by Pera Museum in col- The result is that, for the first time able contracts, the government has Turkey.) laboration with the Paradjanov Museum. It marks since the republic was founded nearly a helped new businesses to emerge, and “Billions of dollars have fled Turkey the 95th birthday anniversary of the great artist. century ago, many from the old mon- they are rapidly replacing the old ones, in the last couple of years, especially Sergei Paradjanov or Paradjanov (born Sarkis eyed class, in particular the secular he said. “There is a transfer of capital after the coup attempt when people Paradjanian; 1924-1990) was one of the best-known elite who have dominated Turkey’s cul- underway,” he said. “It is social and started to feel threatened,” said directors of Soviet films. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to tural and business life for decades, are political engineering.” Mehmet Gun, the owner of a law firm in an Armenian family, his work reflected the ethnic moving away and the new rich close to Ilker Birbil, a mathematician who Istanbul. diversity of the Caucasus where he was raised. Mr. Erdogan and his governing party faces charges for signing the peace peti- Ms. Bayindir, the designer, began His first major work was “Shadows of Forgotten are taking their place. tion and left Turkey to take up a posi- slowly moving her company to London Ancestors” (1964), which earned him an interna- One of those leaving is Merve tion at Erasmus University Rotterdam two years ago. In Turkey she had half a tional reputation for its rich use of costume and Bayindir, 38, who is relocating to in the Netherlands, warned that the dozen workers and a showroom, but color, and its whimsical portrayal of rural life. London after becoming Turkey’s go-to country was losing people permanently. now she designs and makes the hats Possibly his greatest work, “The Color of hat designer in the fashionable “People who are leaving do not want herself out of a rented atelier in Pomegranates” (1969), described the life of the Nisantasi district of Istanbul. to come back,” Birbil said, citing the London. Armenian poet Sayat Nova. The film angered the “We are selling everything,” she said polarized political climate in the coun- “I could have stayed,” in Istanbul, she Soviet authorities, who claimed that it evoked nation- in an interview during a return trip to try. “This is alarming for Turkey.” said. “‘I would be better off.” alist sentiment. Istanbul last month to close what was “I have received so many emails from But life in Turkey had become so Claiming that Paradjanov promoted homosexuali- left of her business, MerveBayindir, students and friends who are trying to tense, she said, that she fears civil strife ty, the government arrested him in 1973 and sen- which she runs with her mother, and to get out of Turkey,” he said. or even civil war could develop between tenced him to five years in a labor camp. A number sell their four-story house. Students are despairing of change Erdogan supporters and their oppo- of prominent artists, writers and filmmakers protest- Bayindir was an active participant in partly because they have grown up with nents. ed his sentence, but Paradjanov was only released the 2013 protests against the govern- Mr. Erdogan in power for 17 years, said “Now when I come here I don’t see four years later. He was banned for making films for ment’s attempt to develop Taksim Erhan Erkut, a founder of MEF the same Istanbul. She does not have many years afterwards, when he was living in Tbilisi, Square in Istanbul. She said she University in Istanbul, which teaches energy anymore. She looks tired,” but he was allowed to make “The Legend of Suram remains traumatized by the violence innovation and entrepreneurship. Bayindir said. “Me not wanting to come Fortress” (1984). and fearful in her own city. Erdogan denounced the protesters as “This is the only government they here is a big, big thing, because I am delinquents and after enduring arrests have seen, they do not know there is one of those people who is in love with and harassment many have left the another possibility,” he said. the city itself.” S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 5 INTERNATIONAL Project Will Map Genetic make-up Of Armenian Community in Cyprus

NICOSIA (Cyprus Mail) — Members of the Armenian com- munity were asked to provide DNA samples on Sunday, January 6, after a Christmas church service in Nicosia for research that aims to map the genetic background of the Cypriot population. Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 6 and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING) – which is carrying out the research – has chosen this date as the most suitable for the DNA collection since it the church was expected to see a bigger turnout than usual. Members of the Armenian community over the age of 18 who were born in Cyprus and who would like to participate in the project, will give saliva samples after the liturgy. The aim of the study, supervised by Professor Marios Caption: MP Vartkes Mahdessian Cariolou of the CING’s Department of Cardiovascular Genetics and the Laboratory of Forensic Genetics, is to iden- tify the genetic profile of Armenians living in Cyprus. descendants of the Genocide survivors, Mahdessian said, Armenian-Cypriots to Soviet Armenia as part of the The project, according to Cariolou, is a continuation of who arrived on the island in the early 1920s although there Panarmenian movement for “repatriation” during the 1962- efforts to study the background of the Cypriot population. were Armenians on the island as early as 578 AD, during the 1964 period (nerkaght). Cariolou and his team have already published the Byzantine Period, when villages such as Armenokhori in The Armenian-Cypriot community prospered throughout results of a similar study on Greek and Turkish Cypriots Limassol and Arminou in Paphos were created. the British colonial era (1878-1960), by establishing associ- which revealed a common pre-Ottoman paternal ancestry The Armenian Prelature of Cyprus was established in 973 ations, choirs, scout groups, sports teams, musical ensem- between members of the two communities. Next in line are by Catholicos Khatchig I and has ever since maintained a bles, churches, cemeteries and schools, including the Armenians, Maronites and later on, Latins, he said. continuous presence on the island. Historically, the renowned Melkonian Educational Institute that closed “We have already collected some DNA samples from Prelature has been under the jurisdiction of the down in 2005. Maronites and now we are collecting from the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. Following Cyprus’ independence in 1960, the Armenians community,” Cariolou said. Prior to the mass arrivals of the mid-1910s and early in Cyprus, who were recognised as a religious group, opted He said that the response from both communities was 1920s, there was a very small number of Armenians in to belong to the Greek-Cypriot community and were also very positive. Cyprus, around 200, who had mostly arrived in the 19th represented in Parliament by an elected Armenian “The final goal is to study the genetic background of the century, fleeing early persecution in Ottoman Empire. Representative. Cypriot population,” he said. During the Latin Era, after the purchase of Cyprus by the According to Mahdessian, the governments of the The overall project is aimed at providing important his- titular Frankish King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan in Republic of Cyprus since 1960, as well as Cypriot society torical and scientific data on the genetic background of all 1192, a massive immigration of Armenian and other bour- have actively supported the well-being of the Armenian com- Cypriots residing in Cyprus. geois, noblemen, knights and warriors from Western munity, “thus safeguarding the preservation of our rich cul- Researchers will analyze the Y-chromosome of DNA sam- Europe, Cilicia and the Levant took place, to whom fiefs, ture, heritage, language and religious identity.” ples from men whose father is of Armenian extraction and manors and privileges were granted. “It should be very interesting to see the results,” he said. the mitochondrial DNA of women whose either mother or During the Frankish and the Venetian Eras (1192-1489 He said that his grandfather had told him that their family father are Armenian. and 1489-1570 respectively), there were Armenian churches had a Persian background. “I believe it’s interesting to see According to the Armenian Representative in the House in Nicosia, Famagusta, Spathariko, Kornokipos, Platani and the origins of the community.” of Representatives Vartkes Mahdessian there are around elsewhere, while Armenian was one of the official languages Georgia Neophytou, whose mother was Armenian, too 4,000 Armenians living in Cyprus. in Cyprus. said that the project was interesting and that either her or He said when they were asked for help by the CING the Armenian refugees arrived from Palestine (1947-1949) her sister would provide a DNA sample. idea of a DNA collection sample after the church liturgy was and Egypt (1956-1957), while during the last 20 to 30 years, Neophytou’s mother was also half-Armenian from her deemed as ideal as many community members would be the local community has received migrants from Armenia, father’s side, whose family had arrived from Turkey after the there. Syria and Lebanon. genocide while he was an infant. Mahdessian said that members of the Armenian commu- The Armenian-Cypriot population took a hit with the emi- “We are intrigued. It is an interesting initiative,” nity who wish to participate in the project can also go to his gration of about 900 of its members to the UK during the Neophytou said. She stressed however that despite the office another day as DNA samples will also be collected EOKA anti-colonial liberation struggle (1955–1959). A sec- results as regards origins, this did not mean anything con- there. ond factor that contributed to the reduction of the commu- cerning one’s sense of belonging to the community in ques- The Armenian community in Cyprus consists mostly of nity’s population was the emigration of about 600 tion.

Anti-Armenian Tension Rising in Kazakhstan Trump Offers Turkey Patriot Missiles So After New Year’s Eve Murder They Won’t Buy Russian Missiles

TENSIONS, from page 1 nic overtones to the tragedy.” WASHINGTON (Newsweek) — The United he had opted to buy the system from Russia responsible. But RFE/RL’s Kazakh service Kazakhstan’s Interior Minister States has offered to sell its NATO ally Turkey because he could not obtain a similar one from reported that organizers needed to calm the Kalmukhanbet Kassymov briefed the chief of a $3.5 billion Patriot missile defense system as allies in the West. crowd and ask them to refrain from address- the Armenian police, Valeri Osipian, on murder an incentive for the country not to buy an anti- “I tried to buy from my allies,” Çavuolu ing the ethnic angle. The broadcaster said and hooliganism investigations launched by aircraft missile system from Russia, according said. “I wanted to buy from the US for the last the police presence was intensified and that Kazakh law-enforcement agencies. A police to Turkish state media. 10 years, it didn’t work. I couldn’t buy from officers had deployed equipment for crowd statement said Kassymov downplayed the Turkey’s defense and foreign affairs min- NATO allies, so Russia gave me the best pro- control. angry protests in Qaraghandy and assured istries are discussing the purchase of US posal and now I’m buying from Russia.” The Armenian Embassy in Kazakhstan issued Osipian that “Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry Patriot missiles with officials from a US dele- The US has warned that Turkey could be sub- a statement on January 3 offering condolences controls the situation.” gation, according to the reports. ject to sanctions on Russian military equipment to the family of the murdered man and urging The Armenian human rights ombudsman, Turkey had planned to purchase an S-400 if it moves ahead with the purchase. India, anoth- media not to spread “unverified information” Arman Tatoyan, claimed to have received simi- anti-aircraft missile system from Russia despite er US ally, already canceled its plans to buy the S- about the deadly fight. lar assurances from his Kazakh opposite num- warnings from the US and other NATO allies 400 due to concerns over US sanctions. In Armenia, meanwhile, the angry protests ber, Askar Shakirov. In a Facebook post, that the system could pose security risks if In September 2018, the Trump administra- fanned by some social media users raised fears Tatoyan said Shakirov ruled out any “ethnically integrated with Western systems. Turkey tion sanctioned China’s People’s Liberation of anti-Armenian violence in Qaraghandy and motivated discrimination against ethnic signed a deal with Russia in 2017 that was Army over its purchase of the S-400. other parts of Kazakhstan. Armenians” following the Qaraghandy violence. reportedly worth $2.5 billion. Turkey, however, has signaled that it would Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan Kazakhstan is a diverse country that hous- The S-400 can allegedly protect against bal- be interested in purchasing military equipment and his Kazakh counterpart Beybut es dozens of ethnic groups. Official propa- listic missiles and stealth aircraft, including from both the US and Russia. Reports have Atamkulov discussed the fallout from the ganda frequently praises long-ruling that used by NATO allies like the F-35 aircraft. suggested that Turkey has already started con- incident in a phone call on Monday. President Nursultan Nazarbayev for preserv- During a panel discussion held on the side- structing a site for the missile system, and According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, ing ethnic concord in the Central Asian state lines of a NATO summit in July 2018, Turkey’s Russia has pledged to begin deliveries by as they both denounced “attempts to give eth- of 18 million. foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuolu claimed that early as October 2019. 6 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR Community News

Children of Karagheusian Foundation Delegation from Armenia Armenia Fund Attends One-Week Intensive on Preventive (COAF) Annual Dental Care in the US Gala Raises NEW YORK — Last November, as part of con- tinuing efforts to bring healthy smiles to thou- sands of Armenian orphans and children in the $4 Million Middle East and Armenia, a delegation of health professionals from the Howard NEW YORK — With the Armenian flag raised Karagheusian Commemorative Corporation over the historic Cunard building, 400 guests (HKCC), also known as the Karagheusian attended the sold-out 15th Annual Children of Foundation, concluded a one-week visit to some Armenia Fund (COAF) Holiday Gala held of the top dental schools in the Boston area. December 15 at Cipriani 25 Broadway. COAF The invitation had been extended by Dr. Myron announced a record fund-raising total for its 2018 Allukian, Jr., the president of the Massachusetts Gala with over $4 million raised. The purpose of Coalition for Oral Health and a faculty member the event is to fund innovative programs in edu- at Harvard, Tufts and Boston University dental cation, healthcare, social services, and economic schools. development throughout rural Armenia. This will Founded in 1921 by the family of Howard include the completion of the state-of-the-art Karagheusian, who lost his life at age 14, the COAF SMART Center campus, which will reach Karagheusian Foundation provides free dental over 150,000 people and was recently visited by care in Armenia for children aged 5-14. President Armen Sarkissian of Armenia. Education and training remains an important “It was a spectacular evening, and we are component of the HKCC clinical model, which delighted by the support from the Diaspora as was launched in Armenia in 1993 with a pri- well as our global family who have demonstrat- mary focus on pediatric dentistry and ophthal- ed a deep sense of commitment to COAF’s mis- mology. Today, there are five clinics across the sion over the last 15 years,” said Dr. Garo country serving over 60,000 patients annually. Armen, Founder of COAF. “We are energized by In 2017 alone, over 90,000 dental procedures the evening’s outpouring of generosity and will Sara Brown at the 3rd Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide held earlier were performed on Armenian children by the be expanding our reach which now includes 44 this month in Armenia. HKCC clinical staff. rural communities impacting over 75,000 lives “We are pleased to continue delivering state to over 100 communities impacting 150,000 of the art pediatric dental treatment to children lives. Furthermore, the peaceful revolution in in Armenia,” said HKCC Managing Director April underscores COAF’s core values to bring Irina Lazarian, from the Foundation’s US head- about democracy and freedom to allow citizens Storytelling Is Valuable quarters in New York City. However, she also to define their future. All this will result in accel- acknowledged that the Foundation is deter- erated innovation and economic growth. We mined to improve oral health in Armenia feel a moral responsibility to provide the next Tool in Teaching about through preventive care, with an emphasis on generation with the tools, skills and infrastruc- hygiene and regular dental screenings. “We ture to advance what has already started.” would like to see fewer children visiting us for see COAF, page 7 treatment and more children coming in for reg- Genocide ular checkups and cleanings,” explained Lazarian. “This will minimize the fear of visiting a dental office for many children because the YEREVAN and LOS ANGELES — Storytelling and personal narrative are indis- procedures will be less invasive.” pensable tools when educating young people about the dangers of genocide, a Lazarian and HKCC-Armenia Deputy University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation fellow told an inter- Director Dr. Alisa Badalyan, along with mem- national audience during a speech at the third Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide held in December in Armenia. Sara Brown, the institute’s postdoctoral teaching fellow, said that storytelling and narrative are central to the human experience and are ancient ways societies preserve their historical record. In her remarks at the conference, she urged that educators use testimonies of genocide survivors to engage their students to learn how to resist dangerous stereotypes and to treat people with more respect and dig- nity. “The influence of stories and personal narrative is particularly significant for effective and meaningful genocide education and activism,” Brown said. “And the COAF Founder and Chairman Dr. Garo Armen over 55,000 audiovisual testimonies collected and housed in USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive provides educators a unique opportunity to access highly tellable narratives about lived experiences during genocide and other mass atrocities that can be used to educate students around the world.” The event was held in Yerevan, Armenia. It is dedicated to the prevention of the Dr. Mayron Allukian Jr., right, and Irina Lazarian with participants in the program in Boston crime of genocide through education, culture and museums. The forum was orga- nized by the Foreign Ministry of Armenia with the support of the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and in cooperation with the bers of the professional and management staff, International Association of Genocide Scholars. traveled to the Boston area to attend lectures Brown noted that courses that look into the causes and consequences of geno- and interactive presentations as well as meet- cide are becoming more popular around the world, a move she found hopeful. ings with the dental school faculty including “The significance of the human story of genocide, going beyond the historical the dean of the Harvard School of Dental facts, chronology of events and casualties suffered cannot be overlooked by edu- Medicine, the associate dean at Boston cators,” she said. University, and a sealant program director who Using the Armenian Genocide as an example, Brown noted that the story of provided an overview of the school-based each victim is important. sealant programs in Boston and neighboring “The Armenian Genocide was not the mass murder of over 1.5 million Chelsea. The delegation also visited the Fenway Armenians,” she said. “The Armenian Genocide was the murder one by one by one Community Health Center and toured the den- by one of over 1.5 million individuals. And each individual has a story that may tal clinics at Harvard and Tufts. These interac- help promote comprehension of the atrocities that occurred, the lessons that can tions provided the necessary information and be learned.” insights to recognize that a preventive oral She was also concerned that discrimination and antisemitism are on the rise. health program should be designed, tested and “The need for meaningful and impactful instances of modern genocide is all the launched as a pilot program to account for the more pressing today,” she said. “We are witnessing a resurgence in xenophobia, cultural differences and awareness levels of the bigotry and hatred, including anti-Semitic beliefs.” patient population in Armenia, as well as such But she said the rising tide of hatred can be pushed back by using testimony in considerations as available local resources and the classroom. application of modern western technologies, see STORYTELLING, page 8 among other factors. Actor Victor Garber leading Charles Aznavour tribute During the visit, members of the HKCC see KARAGHEUSIAN, page 8 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 7 COMMUNITY NEWS Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) Annual Gala Raises $4 Million

COAF, from page 6 A significant component of the evening was a live art auction guided by Gala Honorary Chair Tony Shafrazi, one of the art world’s most prominent figures. Shafrazi, an Iranian-born Armenian, rose to fame managing artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Donald Baechler, and Kenny Scharf. Renowned auc- tioneer Simon de Pury once again masterfully conducted the auction. COAF ambassador Andrea Martin once again hosted this year’s gala. The Andrea Martin Performing Arts Auditorium, located in the COAF SMART Center, was named after the Emmy and Tony Award-winning Armenian- American actress in appreciation of her love and support for the children of Armenia. Celebrity guests included Grammy-nominated singer Melody Gardot and Emmy-nominated

15th Annual COAF Holiday Gala at Cipriani 25 Broadway in NYC

who was a founding COAF board member. Nine exchange student in Colorado and who has her life. The evening also featured perfor- college scholarships were established for COAF excelled in English language programs mances by two teenaged musicians from Actress Andrea Martin hosting COAF Gala youth in Armenia in appreciation of Clare offered by COAF at her local school. She Armenia. Armen Puchinyan (piano) and Gregorian’s dedication. spoke on gaining confidence and not being Armen Daghents (saxophone) moved guests Vartan Gregorian has served as an adviser to afraid to fail as a result of COAF’s impact on with both classical and popular pieces. actor Victor Garber. Gardot, a proponent of the COAF Board for several years. Prior to his music therapy for children, learned about current position, which he assumed in 1997, COAF’s work after performing at the Gregorian served as the president of the New Francophonie Summit held in Yerevan this York Public Library, and later as the president year. Victor Garber, a past COAF award recipi- of Brown University. He has been decorated by ent who has taken part in several COAF galas, various governments, including over seventy led the evening’s special tribute to the late honorary degrees. French-Armenian iconic entertainer Charles Attendees also heard an inspiring speech Aznavour. from a young teenager by the name of COAF’s Humanitarian Award was presented Marina Mirzoyan from the COAF-supported to Vartan Gregorian (president of the Carnegie village of Hatsik. Marina is currently a study Corporation) and his late wife, Clare Gregorian,

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE Students of Armenian Descent

Having Completed One Year of College by June, 2019

Applications and other information may be obtained from COAF Humanitarian Award recipient Vartan Gregorian of Carnegie Corporation ARMENIAN STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION Scholarship Committee 333 Atlantic Avenue • Warwick, RI 02888 Tel. 401 461-6114 • Fax 401 461-6112

e-mail: [email protected] Deadline for returning completed Applications: March 15, 2019

Live auction conducted by Simon de Pury and Haig Boyadjian 8 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR COMMUNITY NEWS Karagheusian Foundation Delegation Attends One-Week Intensive on Preventive Dental Care in the US

KARAGEUSIAN, from page 6? delegation had the opportunity to acquaint res- idents from Harvard, Boston University and NYU Langone Health Systems with the Foundation’s century-old history and its cur- rent operations. They also presented an in- depth case study on current HKCC services and practices at the Journal Club in Boston. “It was a great experience learning about Karagheusian Foundation’s dental programs for children in Armenia and its plan for more effective school prevention programs,” stated Dr. Nishitha Ponnamaneni and Dr. Melvin Thomas, both DPH residents working with Allukian at NYU Langone Health Systems. The visit concluded with a debriefing session with Allukian, Dr. Vartan Ghugasian and Dr. Raffy Bagdassarian, whereby the design and implementation of a more cost-effective preven- tion dental care program were discussed with the delegation. Allukian reflected on the week-long visit, saying: “I am very pleased to work with the Karagheusian Foundation to develop effec- tive community prevention programs and dental care delivery systems so that fewer Armenian children will suffer from pain or infection.” Ghugasian remarked on his long relationship with the foundation. “It was a great endeavor to start this program with the Foundation 20 years ago, when it established operations in A presentation at Boston University Armenia. It is amazing to see how far it has come and how it continues to strive for the excellence in its quest to deliver modern west- The Armenian delegation agreed that, highly productive and constructive, as it served bringing preventive oral health care to ern standards of dental care.” although of short duration, the experience was to reaffirm the Foundation’s commitment to Armenia.

Storytelling Is Valuable Tool in Teaching about Genocide Sponsor a Teacher Donation STORYTELLING, from page 7 several ways to bring testimony to students, “Interaction with the Visual History Archive Brown said that students have to learn how to The Haiganoosh Mengushian/Ajemian, has been found through studies to engage embrace differences in others instead of reject- Robert Ajemian, Gloria Ajemian and Hrach learners at the cognitive, moral and affective ing them. Mgrdich Ajemian Foundation has donated levels,” she said. “It fosters an interest in his- “The interpersonal connection and emo- $2,500 to the Tekeyan Cultural Association’s toric topics, which is great for me as a historian, tional investment that accompany these in- Sponsor A Teacher Program. but also increases critical-thinking skills. person and virtual interactions with sur- Teaching with testimony provides students with vivors and witnesses to genocide help stu- the necessary tools to resist the us-vs.-them par- dents overcome apathy, polarizing influences adigm identified by genocide scholars as neces- in their own lives, and helps them close the sary to bring about the social death of a group psychological distance between them and the and other dehumanizing tactics often employed victim or survivor,” she said. “And it gives a by extremists.” human story to statistics that document the Noting that USC Shoah Foundation offers suffering.” Nardolillo Funeral Home Est. 1906 John K. Najarian, Jr. Rhode Island’s Only Licensed Armenian Funeral Director 1278 Park Ave. Cranston, RI 02910 (401) 942-1220 1111 Boston Neck Rd. Narragansett, RI 02882 (401) 789-6300 www.nardolillo.com

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NAASR, from page 1 his legacy at the university, a residence quadran- him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has throughout his career, and working to better gle was named after him, as well as three profes- 2001, following an honorary degree awarded by given full support with a capital grant from the the human condition. We are grateful that we sorships: the Vartan Gregorian Assistant Yerevan State University in 1995. He is a former Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Cultural can acknowledge and memorialize his tremen- Professorship, The Brooke Russell Astor trustee of the American University of Armenia, a Facilities Fund and MassDevelopment of dous accomplishments by naming the institu- Professorship in the Humanities in Honor of trustee emeritus of the Dilijan International $225,000 awarded in 2017, for installation of an tion’s new headquarters the NAASR Vartan Vartan Gregorian, and the Aga Khan School of Armenia, and a co-founder of the elevator, other accessibility features, and fire Gregorian Building,” said Edward Avedisian. Professorship in Islamic Humanities created in Aurora Humanitarian Initiative with Ruben suppression. “I am overwhelmed by this most generous and honor of Gregorian. In 1997, the City of Vardanyan and Dr. Noubar Afeyan, who estab- The NAASR staff is working in temporary selfless offer and accept it with humility, and with Providence renamed the Fox Point Public lished the Vartan Gregorian Scholarship offices at the AGBU-New England headquarters gratitude,” said Gregorian. “I thank NAASR for Elementary School after Gregorian to acknowl- Program in 2018 to support scholarly research of on Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown and con- bringing Armenian history, culture, and values to edge his role in strengthening relationships Armenian history. In 2012, Gregorian was pre- tinuing its programming and bookstore on-site life through its programming and collections, between the university and the community. sented with the Republic of Armenia’s Medal of and online at www.naasr.org. now visible and accessible to anyone.” In 1997, Gregorian assumed the presidency Mkhitar Gosh, and in 2017, he was the recipient To date, NAASR has financial commitments “We are proud to recognize Gregorian’s dis- of one of the country’s oldest grantmaking of the country’s Order of Honor. for more than $6 million of the $6.5 million tinguished life of service and dedication foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New needed to build the new center. The nonprofit through our new global center,” said Yervant York. His philanthropic work and scholarly Philanthropist Edward Avedisian invites the community to contribute at all levels Chekijian, chairman of the NAASR board. “He accomplishments have been recognized with Avedisian, a NAASR Board member, is a world- to support this project. is an inspiration for generations to come. We more than 70 honorary degrees and dozens of class clarinetist who performed with the Boston are also sincerely grateful to the Avedisians for significant awards, including the National Pops Orchestra and the Boston Ballet’s orches- their generosity and vision.” Humanities Medal, awarded by President tra before changing careers to focus on invest- William J. Clinton; and the Presidential Medal ments. Through his philanthropy, Avedisian has Vladimir Yengibaryan, Distinguished Career of Vartan of Freedom, awarded by President George W. donated generously to the Armenian community Gold Medal Winning Gregorian Bush. President George H. W. Bush appointed and beyond. He is a trustee of the American Gregorian has had a distinguished career as Gregorian to the J. William Fulbright Board of University of Armenia (AUA), where he was the Armenian Boxing Legend, an academic, scholar, historian, philanthropist, Foreign Scholarships, and President Barack principal benefactor of the new 100,000 square and visionary. Born in Tabriz, Iran, Gregorian Obama appointed him to the selection commit- foot Paramaz Avedisian Building. He is also the To Be Remembered by the received his elementary education in Iran and tee of the President’s Commission on White principal benefactor of the Khoren and his secondary education at Collège Arménian in House Fellowships. Gregorian has also been Shooshanig Avedisian K-12 School and TCA Los Angeles Chapter Beirut, Lebanon. In 1956, he entered Stanford decorated by the Austrian, Italian, Portuguese, Community Center in an underprivileged section ALTADENA, CA – The Tekeyan Cultural University, where he majored in history and the French, and Armenian governments. of the capital city, Yerevan. Association Metro Los Angeles Chapter will humanities, graduating with honors in 1958. Gregorian is known for his leadership in sup- Avedisian is a 2016 recipient of the Ellis host a program titled Vladimir Yengibaryan: He was awarded a PhD in history and humani- port of democracy, human rights, and civic Island Medal of Honor. He is a director on the Gold Medal Winning Armenian Boxing Legend ties from Stanford in 1964. Gregorian has engagement, and his efforts have been recog- board of the Armenian Missionary Association on Friday, January 25, 2019 at 7 p.m. at the taught European intellectual history and nized with honors from numerous nonprofit of America (AMAA), and he recently gave a Glendale Public Library, Glendale, CA. Avetis Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State organizations such as the Council on transformative gift to the Rhode Island College Bairamian, sports editor of Nor Or, and author College, the University of California at Los Foundations’ Distinguished Service Award; of Pharmacy in honor of his late brother of the Armenian language publications Famous Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin. Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Leadership Paramaz Avedisian. Armenians in the World of Sports and In 1972, he joined the University of Award; the Africa-America Institute’s Award for New Headquarters Armenian Sports Encyclopedia will serve as the Pennsylvania faculty and was appointed Leadership in Higher Education Philanthropy; keynote speaker and present the fascinating life Tarzian Professor of Armenian and Caucasian and a special recognition from PEN America. NAASR’s new headquarters, designed by a of Yengibaryan. History and professor of South Asian History. Civic honors from state legislatures and munic- team from the architectural, design and engi- Also participating in the program are He was founding dean of the Faculty of Arts ipalities include Massachusetts, Rhode Island, neering firm of Symmes, Maini and McKee, led renowned Armenian boxers, Khoren Injeyan and Sciences at Penn in 1974 and four years New York, Houston, San Francisco, Fresno, by Ara Krafian, will be a three-story building and Nshan Munchyan, who will offer their later became its twenty-third provost until Austin, and New York City. with a glass façade, allowing natural light to illu- remarks on Yengibaryan. 1981. His outstanding tenure at the university Throughout his illustrious career, Gregorian minate the interior. A variety of Armenian fea- Vladimir Yengibaryan was born in Yerevan, has been honored with endowed professorships has written extensively about Armenia and has tures are incorporated into the design, includ- Armenia on April 24, 1932. He retired with a in English and in the Humanities and through maintained close ties to the Armenian commu- ing a hand-carved wooden door, which a master record of 255 wins and 12 losses. Yengibaryan several graduate fellowships in the humanities. nity. When he was appointed Tarzian Professor artisan in Armenia is carving, and an Armenian was a three-time European champion (1953, After an academic career spanning two at the University of Pennsylvania, Gregorian Alphabet Wall. 1957 and 1959) and three-time Soviet champi- decades, Gregorian served as president of The recruited three professors to teach Armenian The general contractor, Altair Construction, on (1955, 1956 and 1958). He won a gold medal New York Public Library from 1980 to 1989. The history, language, and literature: the late Vahé anticipates completion by the fall of 2019. representing the U.S.S.R. at the 1956 Olympic institution includes a network of four research Oshagan, the late Robert Hewsen, and Michael The building will have many spaces for the Games in Melbourne, Australia as a light wel- libraries and 83 branch libraries, and during his Stone. In 1999, the head of the Armenian public to gather as well as a secure environment terweight (-63.5 kg). Yengibaryan is considered tenure, Gregorian was widely credited with restor- Apostolic Church, Karekin I, bestowed upon for NAASR’s rare-book collection gathered in the ing the status of the library as a financially sound, Gregorian the St. Gregory the Illuminator Mardigian Library, one of the top-five Armenian cultural landmark. In 1989, he was appointed the Medal, the church’s highest honor; and His libraries open to the public in the diaspora. It will 16th president of Brown University, where he led Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia, honored soon total 40,000 books, with some dating back a campaign that raised over $500 million, bring- him and his wife, Clare, with the Prince and to the 1600s, and rare periodicals dating back to ing the institution’s endowment past the $1 bil- Princess of Cilicia Medals. the 1800s, as well as the unique personal lion mark. Gregorian also oversaw the creation of Gregorian is a member of the National archives of prominent scholars, early Armenian- several new academic departments. In honor of Academy of Sciences of Armenia, which awarded Americans, and religious leaders.

Vladimir Yengibaryan

the most prominent Soviet boxer of the 1950’s period. He was the first Soviet boxer to become European champion. After his retirement, he served as an international boxing referee and international boxing judge. Yengibaryan was a noted boxing coach who trained and developed generations of Armenian youth in the sport of boxing. Yengibaryan passed away on February 1, 2013 in Los Angeles. He is buried at Tokhmakh cemetery in Yerevan. Carl Bardakian, chairman of the Tekeyan Cultural Association Metro Los Angeles Chapter, stated “Vladimir Yengibaryan is not only a beloved boxing figure, but also a great patriot and national hero of the Armenian peo- ple. His impact and influence on Armenian box- ing is still felt to this day. Our goal is for Vladimir Yengibaryan to become a candidate on the ballot for the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York when they finally establish an amateur section.” 10 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR COMMUNITY NEWS Armenian Assembly Ohio State Chair Hosts Smithsonian Folklife Festival Presentation

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Armenian Assembly of America Ohio State Chair Ara Bagdasarian hosted a presentation by Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Director of Special Projects Halle Butvin, titled “Armenia on the National Mall: How A Festival Was Brought To Life” at an event organized in partnership with the Assembly, the Armenian Cultural Association, and St. Gregory of Narek Armenian Church of Richmond Heights. She spoke to a packed room of St. Gregory of Narek parishioners and Cleveland-based Armenian Americans on the Smithsonian’s successful ”Armenia: Creating Home” cultur- al experience during the 2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. “I would like to especially thank Halle Butvin for doing a wonderful job introducing Armenian culture and history at the Festival, and sharing that experience with us back

Smithsonian Director of Special Projects Halle Butvin

from Armenia. Following her presentation, there was a lively question-and-answer ses- sion with those in attendance. Butvin shared a behind-the-scenes look into the different Armenian cultural, musical, and food exhibits that were on display at the Folklife Festival in Washington, DC. She told moving stories of how the event was put together and her important role in making it Smithsonian Director of Special Projects Halle a reality. Butvin, who travelled to Armenia Butvin numerous times, was one of the curators of the festival. At the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and here in her home state,” Bagdasarian said. Cultural Heritage, Butvin is responsible for “The Cleveland Armenian community was expanding the reach of cultural sustainabili- inspired and proud to hear Halle’s presenta- ty work around the world, designing collab-

Razmig Pounardjian, Armenian Assembly Ohio State Chair Ara Bagdsarian, Smithsonian Director of Special Projects Halle Butvin, Rev. Fr. Hratch Sargsyan, and Ari Terjanian tion on ‘Armenia: Creating Home,’ with orative projects to support communities, some guests even expressing tears of joy. safeguard their heritage, promote cultural Those who could not attend the Folklife expression, and elevate cultural practices to Festival in Washington, D.C. this summer improve local economies. Prior to joining the had the opportunity to feel the magnitude Smithsonian, she spent ten years designing and excitement created by the Festival and and implementing impact-driven internation- the Armenian volunteers, and for that we are al development programs in East Africa and grateful,” he added. Asia, ranging from democracy and gover- The festival, which the Armenian Assembly nance to biodiversity conservation and eco- co-sponsored, drew more than 750,000 visi- nomic growth. She is a native of northeast tors, and featured more than 100 musicians, Ohio, and was accompanied at St. Gregory dancers, artisans, winemakers, and cooks Church by her family. S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 11 COMMUNITY NEWS At 21, This Aerospace Engineering Student and Former Refugee Has Created First Invention

become an example.” By Dario Ayala On a recent late fall day, Bakarian tinkers with the tiny generator fan blades of her latest accomplishment: The Ventus, a 5-volt accessory MONTREAL (Globe and Mail) — The distance charger for Cessna airplanes that runs off the from Aleppo to the lab at Montreal’s Trudeau aircraft’s air vents and as an added bonus cools airport where a young engineer-in-training is the air by compressing it. The simple blue tube perfecting her first invention is 8,580 kilome- prototype seems likely to become a must-have tres, but Shoushi Bakarian’s trajectory might accessory for pilots who rely on tablets and better be measured in light speed. smartphones for aviation computation but fly Three years ago, Ms. Bakarian was sitting in aircraft that were mostly built long before the Lebanon, part of a family of four Syrian smartphone era. refugees facing an uncertain future with hope “I like clean energy, solar power, wind power, of making a new start in Canada. Fast-forward so we developed it further to add on the charg- those 36 months: Ms. Bakarian is in her third er idea,” she says. “I spent my summer design- year of aerospace engineering at Montreal’s ing, drawing and testing until it worked.” Concordia University. She has learned her Naor Cohen, the owner of Stratos Aviation, fourth language, French — in addition to hired Bakarian within days of meeting her dur- English, Arabic and Armenian. She’s got two ing an outreach program for women in aviation part-time jobs with promising prospects in her about a year ago. Bakarian started out as an field: one in the parts department at instructor on the company’s flight simulators. Bombardier Aerospace and another at Stratos Shoushi Bakarian, an aerospace engineering student at Concordia University, poses for a photo- One day he shared an idea he had to improve Aviation, a small aviation and flight simulation graph with a ventilation device that she redesigned for Cessna Aircraft, at Stratos Aviation in cooling small Cessna cabins by using a Venturi firm. There, she’s co-created her first invention Montreal on Oct. 30, 2018. Bakarian arrived from Syria in 2016. tube to compress and cool the air. He invited in the lab she’s building. Oh, and she leads a her to set up a lab with computers and 3-D Scout troop where she hopes to influence her printers and she ran with it. young charges. they don’t have to limit themselves to tradition- my community, they have a very limited idea of “I guess she must sleep very little,” Mr. She’s 21. “I want to reach girls and tell them al jobs, like teachers. Especially for girls from what’s out there,” Bakarian says. “I want to Cohen says. “We’ve never seen her as an employee, and more as a partner in the team. She’s free to come whenever stuff needs to be done. Right now, she’s concentrating mainly on the lab. We want to put that imagination and creativity to work more.” Bakarian arrived in Canada on Christmas Eve, 2015, with her father, Antranik, her moth- er, Ani, and her now-24-year-old sister, Meghri. The daughters had high school diplomas earned during the Syrian civil war with rockets flying overhead and bombs bursting not far from their Armenian school in Aleppo. Small details come back to Bakarian as she remembers the time. “Our school was in the fir- ing line, so we had to study in a kindergarten in these tiny little chairs,” she recalls. “I always make jokes about it, but it’s not funny.” By 2015, the battle for Aleppo had settled into a stalemate and her family was stuck. “In Grade 10, the big bombs started, by Grade 11, we were without electricity or running water or internet. Some people started to leave but we didn’t know how to get out of Aleppo. We did- n’t know who was on the road waiting to kid- nap us. … Once the missiles started falling, we didn’t know where they were coming from or where they’d land.” A turning point came when her mother need- ed surgery that had to be performed in Lebanon. The medical issue combined with mounting violence forced the family to make a move. They spent a year in Lebanon while she recovered. Her parents concluded the family would have limited education and work oppor- tunities in that country. That’s when Canada opened the doors to Syrian refugees. In those early Canadian winter days, the fam- ily enrolled in French classes while all four of them set about finding work. Bakarian got hired at McDonald’s, a job she kept as she enrolled at Concordia, which helped her family survive while her parents found work in the garment industry. It was a step down from her father’s previous job managing a tools ware- house. Meghri, meanwhile, is specializing in child studies at Concordia. Bakarian is grateful for the sacrifices her par- ents made, but she made some, too. She was almost crushed by her workload as a first-year university student who was working 30 hours a week at her fast food job. “I was physically, emo- tionally and mentally exhausted,” she says. “But now I’m making up for it. My family is okay now, and it’s easier.” Arpi Hamalian, an education professor emeri- ta at Concordia University, took the younger Bakarian women under her wing when they showed up at an orientation in early 2016. “They were looking a little lost,” Dr. Hamalian recalls now, but it didn’t take long for them to get on track. “Shoushi, well both girls really, know exactly who they are and where they are going. They are unbelievably talented, focused and team-oriented. There aren’t many like them.” 12 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR Arts & Living

Geoffrey Zakarian BOOK REVIEW Embarks on Culinary Partnership with Mr. Five Per Cent Miami Heat Brings to Life Story Of Buccaneering By Nicole Schubert Calouste Gulbenkian

MIAMI (Ocean Drive) — This season, celebri- Who Anticipated ty chef and restaurateur, Geoffrey Zakarian, most known for dishing it out on the Food Today’s Unfettered Network, heated up Miami diners and took over the Flagship Lounge at the American Airlines Global Tycoons Arena with notable eats from the Diplomat Beach Resort’s Point Royal. And with the Heat’s Chef Partner Program transforming By Oliver Bullough their Flagship Lounge into eclectic culinary concepts throughout the year, premium mem- What does the life of an Ottoman-born eth- bers were able to toast to 2019 with a five-star Georgs Avetisjans at work nic Armenian oil tycoon have to teach us about chef who represents the best of the best. the modern world? Quite a lot, it turns out, Zakarian spoke in January about this one-of- judging by this fascinating biography a-kind partnership, what signature plates pre- of Calouste Gulbenkian, a dealmaker for the mium members nibbled on off the bleachers, ages and, at his death in 1955, the world’s rich- his favorite moments on the Food Network, and Georgs Avetisjans est man. what we can look forward to at this coming Gulbenkian saw an oilfield only once, on a year’s South Beach Wine and Food Festival. visit to Baku (then an oil-fueled boomtown in Geoffrey, tell us about partnering with Following His Crane to the the Russian empire, now the capital of Miami Heat, as part of the Diplomat Beach Azerbaijan) as a 19-year-old graduate from Resort’s first-ever culinary partnership, with Fatherland King’s College London, but he was very quick our hometown all-star team. to appreciate the importance of oil as a com- YEREVAN/RIGA — I met Latvian photographer Georgs Avetisjans at the end of modity, and the opportunity inherent in inter- April in Yerevan, at the height of the Velvet Revolution. Yet the purpose of his visit national competition for it. He combined excel- was not connected with this historical event, but a planned project and the simple lent contacts in the Middle East with skills he desire to get acquainted with the learned as an entrepreneur in the City of country of his paternal ances- London, and secured a 5-percent stake in all oil By Artsvi Bakhchinyan tors. Georgs’ two sisters and found beneath the Asian territories of the Ottoman empire. Special to the Mirror-Spectator brother-in-law were with him, accompanying him sightseeing, When the deal was signed, on the eve of the meeting interesting people and first world war, his stake didn’t sound like participating in public actions. Months later, I received Georgs’ gorgeous photo- much, but he fought for decades to hang on to book of his last exhibition, “Homeland,” featuring landscapes and portraits from it and, by the 1950s, he had a shilling for every the Latvian village of Kaltene which present its recent history from World War II pound earned from some of the world’s richest until the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 via interviews, notes and archival oilfields. And that really added up. In modern imagery. Avetisjans was born in 1985 in Talsi; he graduated from the University of Brighton (UK) in 2016 with a Master of Arts degree in photography. He has lived in the US and the UK for seven years, and had several exhibitions in Latvia, Italy, China, Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, France, Denmark and the UK. Most recently selected for the Magnum Photos Graduate Photographers’ Award 2017 in partnership with Photo London and RBB Economics, he won the Second Prize “Different Worlds 2017” at Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which showcased recent works of ten young and emerging con- temporary photographers from Central and Eastern Europe. In July 2018 the pho- tobook Homeland: The Longest Village in the Country was published by Milda Books during the opening week of Les Rencontres d’Arles in France, and it was Geoffrey Zakarian launched officially together with a solo show at the Latvian Museum of Photography in Riga. GEOFFREY ZAKARIAN: What an incredible My conversation with Georgs concerns his creative life, photography, and art, as experience. We did a VIP dinner from Point well as his ties with Armenia. Royal for a one-of-a-kind experience. The Heat Georgs, you studied photography in prestigious schools in the USA and the made me a Zakarian jersey and I got to test my UK. What did this give you which you could not obtain in your native Latvia? skills on the court for fun. I’ve been thinking In Latvia it was not possible to get an MA degree in photography and we don’t about turning pro. What do you think? have as strong and qualified professionals as in the UK or in the US, so I decided I’m thinking MVP! Speaking of, what cham- to move abroad. It was also an opportunity to strengthen my academic English and pion dishes did you serve? challenge my writing and reading as well as translating from one language to GZ: We served an astonishing amount of another - especially for my final MA dissertation and body of work, which was close- food! A few of the offerings were spinach and ly related to my home country in Latvia. Study abroad gave me discipline, shaped Mr. Five Per Cent: The Many Lives wild arugula with pumpkin seeds, and carrot my beliefs and helped me to expand my visual and critical thinking as well as writ- of Calouste Gulbenkian, the ing. It has opened completely new horizons, points of view and new ways of yogurt, our signature raw bar set up with World’s Richest Man chilled shrimp, crab legs, and lobster, and a clas- approaching my individual practice as a visual storyteller. The course has devel- sic clam bake with Maine mussels and clams, oped my research capabilities, aesthetic control, critical thinking and improved my crawfish, shrimp, baby corn, and peanut pota- academic voice and understanding of how to read, review and analyse other pho- toes. tographic works. terms, he died with a fortune of almost £5bn. What spirits did you recommend pairing In Latvia we also have a really great institution called International Summer He was clearly not an easy person to like, with these eclectic dishes? School of Photography (ISSP), which is a non-commercial platform for contempo- and fell out with almost everyone he came GZ: We have a robust cocktail program at our rary photography acting internationally offering high-quality alternative education across, but his buccaneering qualities make bar and I think beverages are such an exciting and networking programs for emerging photographers around the globe. Since him an extremely interesting person to read part of the meal. My personal choices would be 2006, ISSP has yearly run the International Summer School of Photography, ini- about. At one point, he exploited the young a Negroni, a classic Manhattan or Tequila tiated local and international education and exchange programmes, produced exhi- Soviet Union’s shortage of capital to build the Sunrise. Champagne is never a bad choice bitions, publications and festivals with qualified and renowned professionals world- nucleus of a world-class art collection. There either! wide, and, most importantly, gathered a thriving community of emerging photog- are several Rembrandts missing from the I have to ask, who’s your favorite Miami raphers in Latvia and internationally. I’ve participated at the ISSP in 2015 and Hermitage, thanks to his negotiating skills. Heat player and were you able to play one-on- 2018, and in 2018 I was invited as a guest lecturer for their ISSP School students. When Gulbenkian was born in 1869, one with them? Since the invention of photography hundreds of photographers document this Armenians were a significant minority in GZ: Kelly Olynyk. Let me tell you what I did world through black and white or color images or express their inner Istanbul, and dominated the city’s commercial do, stand next to them. Humbling. see AVETISJANS, page 14 sector, having taken advantage of a series of Geoffrey, you’re a leader in the culinary reforms passed by an Ottoman government see ZAKARIAN, page 13 see GULBENKIAN, page 17 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 13 ARTS & LIVING Geoffrey Zakarian Embarks on Culinary Partnership with Miami Heat Rolling Stones Have ZAKARIAN, from page 12 No Sympathy for world. How did your journey first begin as America’s ultimate top chef? GZ: It started at the Culinary Institute of The Disabled, Fan America. The best place to start if you want to be a professional chef. The way in which Tim Alleges Ryan leads the school is impressive. Known for your sophisticated taste, you first worked at New York’s Le Cirque. How did Michael Gartland Le Cirque shape you into becoming the chef you are today? GZ: That kitchen had access to the most NEW YORK (New York Daily News) — A amazing ingredients. It was incredible. Now retired administrative law judge is accusing the everyone can get pretty much everything but in Satisfaction supergroup’s promoter of having those days, it all hit the kitchen at Le Cirque little sympathy for the disabled because prices first. I had this incredible opportunity to learn on handicapped seats are five times more than how to cook with things I would never have had other tickets at the band’s June 2019 shows access too. Also, Sirio Maccioni — the owner of at MetLife Stadium. Le Cirque — from him I learned the true art of Michael Boyajian, 60, sent a claim against pro- hospitality. moter Concerts West/AEG to the state Division Who first inspired you and what was the of Human Rights after learning accessible seats first dish you ever made? for the rickety rockers’ June 2019 gigs at MetLife GZ: My Aunt Anna. She was an amazing Stadium cost five times more than other seats — cook. Stuffed grape leaves was a dish we made $1,075 compared with about $200. together all the time. Not sure if it was the first, You can’t always get what you want, but the but definitely one she taught me to perfect. Stones should be particularly sensitive to acces- You recently published a cookbook, My sibility, he said, due to both their own age and Perfect Pantry. If you could fill a pantry inside that of their core audience. a Miami home, what would be inside of it? “It blew my mind,” Boyajian said recently. GZ: You don’t need everything. You just need “The baby boomers are their biggest rock ‘n’ the right things. The book is laid out around roll fans, and we’re aging out now.” the 50 ingredients any home cook should have The Stones’ senior singer Mick Jagger is a on hand to make delicious, easy meals. spry 75, as is geriatric guitar god Keith In addition to being a writer and esteemed Geoffrey Zakarian at work Richards. Guitarist Ronnie Wood is the restaurateur, you’re also a judge on Food youngest Stone at 71 and drummer Charlie Network’s Chopped, an Iron Chef, and co-host Watts is 77. on Food Network’s Emmy-nominated daytime so it was a great natural progression. One of my With Food Network South Beach Wine and The first problem Boyajian said he encoun- series, The Kitchen. How did you jumpstart favorite things to film is Iron Chef. There’s noth- Food Festival nearing this February, what can tered when trying to buy tickets was that your career on the Food Network? ing quite like Kitchen Stadium. guests look forward to experiencing? wheelchair-accessible seating was either nonex- GZ: Chopped! It was a little show that became Plans to add an additional show? GZ: I’m hosting a Bloody Mary Brunch with istent or quickly sold out for the two shows. a big hit! I can’t believe how popular it became. GZ: Yes, my production company Corner Table Jeff Mauro on the Sunday of that weekend to The only other accessible seats still available I had been cooking for 25 years already, so when Entertainment is working some very exciting close out the festival. It’s an annual event at were for people with hearing and sight impair- the TV thing took off it was a cool addition to my multi-platform concepts. Can’t share anything Point Royal. Always a sell out, so get your tick- ments, and those tickets, while not addressing career as a chef and restaurateur. I love teaching just yet, but keep an eye out. ets early! his challenges, were out of his league — and, he says, discriminatory. “I just want them to make more accessible seating available,” he said. “I have to use a walk- er. I have trouble getting up and down steps.” ‘Lights! Camera! Saroyan!’ Documentary on William Saroyan to Boyajian said he’s had trouble getting around since 2011 when he injured his right leg in a fall Have International Premiere at Fresno State on January 25 down the icy steps in front of his home. He hurt his left leg two years later in another tumble FRESNO — The Armenian Studies Program and now needs a walker to get around. at Fresno State, in conjunction with the A former judge who also worked as an inves- William Saroyan House Museum, is presenting tigator for the state Division of Human Rights, the international premiere of “Lights! Camera! Boyajian said he’s never seen the band and is Saroyan!” on Friday, January 25, at 7.30 p.m., between a rock and hard place in his efforts to in the Satellite Student Union at Fresno State. check seeing them live off his bucket list. Directed by Harut Shatyan, and produced by He claims his case has merit for two reasons: Ara Baghdasaryan, “Lights! Camera! Saroyan!” the relative scarcity of tickets for people with examines the career and personal life of Fresno impaired mobility and the huge markup for native William Saroyan, a Pulitzer Prize and accessible seating. Oscar winning author, playwright, and artist. In his complaint, Boyajian requests the defen- Through exclusive interviews with his family dant “provide additional accessible seats at all and friends the documentary spans the artist’s its concerts” and seeks tickets for him and his years living in Fresno and abroad. wife to one of the Stones’ shows in New Jersey No reservations are required, and admission as well as “any civil remuneration.” is free. Boyajian said he filed his complaint with New Seating is available based on a first-come, York instead of New Jersey because he lives in first-served basis. Doors open at 7:00 and the Fishkill, Dutchess County. showing will start at 7:30. Free parking is avail- A publicist for the Rolling Stones did not able in Lots P15, P16, P5 and P6-parking per- return calls. AEG also did not respond. mits not required. A link on the Ticketmaster website — one of The Fresno State Satellite Student Union is the sites where Boyajian shopped for seats — located at 2485 E. San Ramon. offers an accessibility disclaimer and notes For more information about the screening “venues are solely responsible for establishing contact the Armenian Studies Program, visit their own accessible seating ticket policies.” website at www.fresnostate.edu/armeni- William Saroyan “Some venues sell all or a portion of their anstudieså. accessible seating tickets only through their box office and not through Ticketmaster,” it continues. Tickets for the Stones’ New Jersey gigs range from anywhere between $200 to more than $4,000. Boyajian does not specify ticket prices in his complaint, but notes “accessible seats were priced at 5 times the price of average non- accessible seats.” When asked about the disclaimer Boyajian said he didn’t see one and doesn’t think that Wishing my family and What greater gift could Wish you a Happy and Healthy would impact his case. friends a joyous Christmas Christmas bring than love that New Year and a very Merry Wild horses couldn’t drag him away from his and a peaceful, happy and touches everything? Healthy Xmas. Keep the good work going. claim. You’re doing a great job. “That’s going to be up to the investigators,” healthy New Year! 2019 to all! he said. “I’m going forward with it.” Knarig Khatchadourian A spokesman for the state Human Rights Michele Kolligian Mary Bergoudian Meyer Division declined to comment because the com- Ridgewood, NJ Boston, MA Belmont plaint is a pending matter. 14 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARTS & LIVING Georgs Avetisjans: Following His Crane to the Fatherland

AVETISJANS, from page 12 world through the images of inner reality. What you do with your photo camera? I’m mostly interested in multi-layered, research-based storytelling about contemporary issues from a historical and ethnographical aspect on the line between reality and fiction, as well as poetic, metaphoric and authentic imagery in the field of documentary reality. I’m also very much interested in photobook mak- ing, archival materials, notes and investigative recordings and ways of how photography, design and materials could possibly shape the story of an entire photographic project. The themes of my work are mostly about regional and national identity, genetics, ethnography, memory, nostalgia and existentiality. Years ago as a photographer I started to explore subjec- tive aspects such as moods, associations in doc- umentary reality, which formed, and still forms my visual narrative. Do you think that it is still possible to say something new with the language of photog- raphy? Yes, always! That is as if I ask a writer is it still possible to write a new sentence or a novel with your pen? The pen, like the camera, is just a mediator between the writer’s philosophy and a reader (destination). In our digital epoch many professional pho- tographers still use non-digital means. Do you think one day the digital will rule over the oth- ers? It is inevitable, but there will always be some- Georgs Avetisjans in Echmiadzin one who will prefer to work with the analogue techniques, just as audiophiles will always seek a vinyl quality sound when MP3 digital audio genetics. Of course, Latvia is my birthplace, the ed the voices of Armenian people from different developed, created and produced during a files will rule over the other possible audio tech- country I love as the place I grew up in, but I backgrounds. All this addition to my research workshop "Photobook As Object" in 2018 by niques. have never been quite sure if I really belong and materials will be shown into my new pho- Jan Rosseel (Belgium) and Yumi Goto (Japan) at You write your first and last name in the here, having always lived with this fragmenta- tobook Krunk: The Crane That Flew Over The the ISSP in Latvia. The dummy was exhibited Latvian way. It would be Gevorg Avetisyan in tion of ethnicities, and with a hidden, as yet Fatherland, reflecting the past, present and at the ISSP Gallery in Riga, Latvia and in the Armenian (transliterated into English). unfamiliar mystery of the Armenian soul, which future. Art House in Kuldiga, Latvia. My next solo Please tell us about your Armenian roots. I now long to uncover. Please tell us about your Armenian project. show, and first of this project, will be held at the In the early 1980s (when both countries were Have you any idea how many Armenians This is a story about my father; this is also a Archdiocesan Museum from September 15 - still under the umbrella of the Soviet Union) my live in Latvia and can you remember some story about our genetics, Armenian diaspora October 15 in Poland during International father Vladimirs Avetisjans migrated from interesting figures? and history of the land of my Tbilisi, Georgia to Riga, Latvia where he met my Nowadays it could be around 2,500. We have forefathers in Armenia and mother Inta Avetisjana while he was studying at many art professionals, like film director Aik Georgia. “Krunk” means crane the Russian State University of Karapetian, painters Arturs Akopjans and in Armenian and it is a symbol Cinematography (VGIK) at the world’s oldest Varuzh Karapetian, ballet dancer Avetik of longing for one’s homeland, film school in Moscow. While my grandfather Karapetyan. I have interviewed pastor Ter as well as a song sung by wan- Georgs Avetisjans was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Khosrov Stepanyan, artist Babkens Stepanjans, derers that embodies the histor- my great-grandfather Artjoms Avetisjans came businessman Roberts Ogenesjans, poet Gagik ical fate of the Armenian people. from the land of our forefathers — Armenia, to Sarkisjans, painter Varuzh Karapetian, and The song, composed by Komitas Georgia, whereas my father migrated to Latvia musician Tigrans Tumanjans. and sung for centuries, has from Georgia. My great-grandfather Artjoms Last spring you came to Armenia during a become a quasi-official state Avetisjans was born in Kars, Armenia, which is very crucial for the country period. Tell us hymn, a hymn of sadness and currently a city in northeastern Turkey and the please your impressions of what you have longing. capital of Kars Province today. experienced and your general thoughts. Endless foreign invasions, While my father’s roots go back to Armenia, It was such a great coincidence that I could great social and ethnic oppres- he was born in Tbilisi, for centuries a centre of join you in Armenia for such a crucial period of sion, and a host of other politi- Armenian culture and socio-political thought, Armenian history. It was wonderful experience cal and economic conditions have meant that large swathes of Armenians went to live abroad. The exodus began a very long time ago, and gave rise to Armenian settlements in many parts of the world where Armenians preserved their lan- Georgs Avetisjans (Photo courtesy FK Magazine. Photographer guage, their cultural traits, their Arnis Balus) religion, and the idiosyncrasies of their inner life. Recent history has few nations whose sacrifices and bloodshed Photography Festival Bialystok INTERPHOTO could equal that of Armenians. The 1915 geno- 2019 and after in Yerevan (dates are still to be cide murdered the flesh, but strengthened the confirmed). spirit, as whenever the enemy tried to take out Whom have you interviewed and pho- Armenian culture by storm, the same storm car- tographed in Armenia? ried the seeds of this culture to the far corners Many interesting people - musician and col- of the Earth, and new life sprouted in faraway lectioner Yakov Zargaryan; artist and public places, just like the crane, headed for foreign activist Zaruhi Muradyan; photographer Vahan lands, and made its song heard throughout the Kochar; cultural figure Gayane Georgian; ballet world. master Roudolf Kharatian; architect and actress Armenia is covered in rocks, hard and Arine Tagvor; translator of Latvian and Russian weighty as the soul of the people who carry its literature Naira Khachatryan; Armenian cuisine weight, its sadness and its melancholy. This researcher Sedrak Mamulyan; business woman enigmatic territory of the Caucasus is nestled and finansist Anna Vardanyan; architect and between two seas – the Black and the Caspian filmmaker Oshin Yeghiazariantz; musician Alex – that is traditionally regarded as the point Mirzoyan; journalist and lawyer Zaruhi Georgs Avetisjan’s Homeland exhibition in Latvia where the West and the East meet. This befits Mejlumyan; folklorist Verjine Svazlyan, and his- its history, at once exciting and tragically rid- torian Knarik Avagyan. I should not forget you, den with conflict, which I am approaching to philologist and author Artsvi Bakhchinyan! and died in Kaltene, Latvia. The mix of ethnici- and also an opportunity to witness such a spir- find out more about the place my father came What was your biggest impression of ties in my blood – Armeno-Greek on my father’s it and elevation of the nation during the Velvet from in Georgia and our roots in the land of our Armenia? side and Latvian-Russian on my mother’s – has Revolution in April 2018. I think that I have forefathers, Armenia. Unity of the whole nation, hospitality, nature always intrigued me and encouraged me to photographed and witnessed an important part My first dummy of the photobook Krunk. and all the seasons across the country — from become more familiar with ideas of identity and of my project - a history, and I also have record- The Crane That Flew Over the Fatherland was summer to spring. S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 15 ARTS & LIVING The Mayor of the Internet Has a New Mission

see a woman,” he remarked in November to Wired. “You could Ohanian’s bold decision to treat an offhanded “you should By Katie Baker say they are more woke than we were 13 years ago.” Ohanian totally come see me play sometime” courtesy offer from comes across like a concerned parent in his public life because, Williams—“an L.A. invitation,” as he calls it — as a legit excuse well, that’s exactly what he has become. to actually show up in Paris for the French Open. NEW YORK (The Ringer) — “Grandkids on demand,” the Recently Ohanian retweeted Bill Gates, who had written a Still, during this time, Ohanian managed to piss off many of tagline for a new Florida-based business called Papa, has a short musing about the HBO series “Silicon Valley,” a satire the people around him. After returning to the increasingly muti- cheerfully dystopian ring. And so it makes sense that when the that sometimes seems like more of a documentary. Gates wrote nous Reddit as executive chairman in late 2014, Ohanian over- entrepreneur and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian explains that, of the characters on the show, he most identified with the saw a troublesome time for the company. “The second act real- why he invested in such a company, he, too, sounds like he’s liv- squirrely, on-a-different-wavelength Richard Hendricks. I ask ly helped me see what it would take,” he says, “to bring a com- ing in a dramatized, if familiar, future. “Empathy,” he says, Ohanian whether there’s a member of the Pied Piper braintrust pany not from zero to one, but from one to 10.” When he uncer- speaking by phone from the Bay Area on a recent Thursday who resonates most with him. “Maybe — ” he says, then inter- emoniously fired Victoria Taylor, a popular community manag- morning, “is not something I believe robots will be able to pos- rupts himself. “No, no, I got nothing.” I continue to press him, er, in July 2015 it was bad enough. It was worse that Ellen Pao, M sess.” and he says, “I was thinking: ‘Who’s the vest dude?’” the embattled interim CEO, shouldered much of the blame. C In October, Initialized Capital, the early-stage VC firm Jared? “It was my decision,” Ohanian later wrote in a Reddit com- Ohanian cofounded with Garry Tan in 2011, was part of a $2.4 “Jared,” he says. “There’s moments where I definitely … I feel ment. “And the transition was my failure and I hope we can C million seed round for Papa, which connects college students like the suit guy. I feel like the corporate dork.” (Of Reddit’s two keep moving forward from that lesson.” Sam Altman, the head A with seniors looking for companionship or nonmedical assis- cofounders, Ohanian was decidedly not the one who wrote the of Y Combinator and a Reddit board member, answered ques- tance. The “Papa Pals,” as the designated whippersnappers are code. In 2017 he told NPR’s “How I Built This” that, in addi- tions from users the same day. “Free speech is great and terri- called, are like if the Boy and Girl Scouts merged with tion to coming up with Reddit’s name and doodling its logo, his ble,” he wrote in response to one question. “I think figuring out TaskRabbit: They might set up an Apple TV, provide a ride to duties included haggling over cellphone bills and ordering how technology can encourage empathy is one of the more A an appointment, gofer at the grocery store, or just sit and listen. pizza.) “And there’s a little bit of the — who’s the jackass who interesting and important open research problems in the world tos (Andrew Parker, the company’s founder, tells me that a Papa got kicked off the show?” right now.” dau Pal recently accompanied an older client to a wedding and cut Erlich? a rug on the dance floor.) “It has been said that there was inspiration there, but I don’t Growing up in Maryland There were a number of things about Papa that made it a see it at all,” Ohanian says. He explains that some viewers drew Ohanian grew up in Columbia, Maryland, and long before he compelling investment. This summer, Papa’s founders went parallels between Erlich Bachman’s fictional travel-booking was watching his wife play tennis and naming his baby daugh- through the famous accelerator program at Y Combinator, startup Aviato and Huffman and Ohanian’s real-life endeavor, ter after himself, he was watching the Washington Redskins where Ohanian first hatched the website Reddit with his the travel site Hipmunk. “I was like, ‘That doesn’t make any and making plans to name a future baby after a different man. cofounder Steve Huffman in 2005, and where he met Tan a few sense,’” he says. “I don’t see that at all, but whatever.” (The “Son or daughter,” he wrote in the acknowledgements of his years after that. The startup is based out of Miami, which character comparisons he does see: that the late Peter Gregory 2013 book Without Their Permission, “I’m naming him or her Ohanian likes: He has been outspoken about the benefits of character is part Paul Graham, one of Ohanian’s first support- Robert Griffin Ohanian.” When I remind him of this almost operating outside the Silicon Valley bubble, and a Florida base ers, and part Peter Thiel, Tan’s former boss.) instantaneously dated reference and ask his thoughts on the is a no-brainer for any strivers in the so-called “elder tech” current state of the franchise, he sounds legitimately aggrieved. space. But what Ohanian keeps coming back to when he talks Rise of Reddit “I don’t even want to talk about it,” he says. “I’m so over it.” about Papa is that the busi- Once upon a ness harnesses something— time, Ohanian’s kindness, basically—that first big pur- “humans are uniquely good chase upon sell- at,” he says. “It’s something ing Reddit was we don’t have to worry to upgrade his about AI automating away.” father’s long- For years, as he built, left, time nosebleed and rejoined Reddit and did tickets to four a zillion other things on the sweet seats near side, Ohanian had a front- the 50-yard line. row seat to many of the Now, annoyed thrills and chills that can at both the come from humans being team and the uniquely good (“good”) at league, they things. With Reddit, he have let the tick- watched passionate commu- et subscription nities form around shared lapse. “I was interests like skin care or raised a Phish, buzzing with the col- diehard,” says lective purpose of a hive; he Ohanian. “I also presided over a busi- would have ness that teemed with Alexis Ohanian Sr. and his wife, Serena Williams never imagined racism, misogyny, and snuff after 25, 30 films. He marveled at the years of indoc- growth of a startup that trination, feel- once felt like his baby; he recoiled at, yet enabled, that baby’s Ohanian’s actual personal arc is far too dramatic and silly ing this ambivalent about it, but I really do.” When the Redskins maturation into a troublesome punk. even for a Silicon Valley script anyway; it’s like something out signed Mark Sanchez in mid-November, Ohanian weighed in: Now, Ohanian has entered a new phase of his life, one revolv- of an earnest “By age 35 you should …” meme. His rise to “Am I too late to make the obvious @Kaepernick7 tweet?” ing around an actual baby. “He has this whole Business Dad prominence was so sudden — Reddit was only 16 months old Growing up, Ohanian thought the coolest thing in the world aesthetic, this whole Business Dad philosophy,” says Kim-Mai when Ohanian and Huffman sold it to Conde Nast and became would be to own a pro football team. “And now, actually, Cutler, a partner at Initialized. “Like, being great at being an multimillionaires at age 22 — that his success feels both wildly instead,” he says, “I just own an esports team.” investor, being great at being supportive of companies, and aspirational and weirdly achievable, at least in a “well, if he can Over the years Ohanian and Initialized have been a part of then also being a great father, and having that be a very visual do it …” sort of way. Even his early setbacks felt relatable to some extremely successful investments, like the crypto trading part of his identity.” media types: In 2010, when he left Reddit and spent a few platform Coinbase and the increasingly omnipresent Instacart. In early January he and his wife, the tennis all-timer Serena months living in Armenia, it was practically a rite of passage. But Cloud9 might be the objectively coolest venture they’ve Williams, shared with Vogue the startling particulars of You haven’t truly made it in New York City, after all, until backed. Cloud9, which counts among its properties the Williams’s harrowing and life-threatening postpartum experi- you’ve quit a Conde Nast job during a recession and headed Overwatch League champion London Spitfire, was named the ence following the birth of their first child, a girl named Alexis abroad. year’s top esports organization by ESPN.com and was also fig- Olympia Ohanian Jr. In February, Ohanian stepped down from And then there was his relationship with Williams, whom he ured by Forbes to be the most valuable player in the growing his day-to-day role at Reddit to focus his time and energy on met in 2015. One minute Ohanian was just some nerd visiting esports ecosystem, based in part on its youth-focused strategy seeding and advising startups through Initialized Capital, which Rome to speak at a tech conference; the next he was the type and its successful merchandising arm. has amassed portfolios valued at $22 billion. (He remains on of guy who attends a royal wedding, is followed around by HBO Cloud9 isn’t the only Initialized portfolio company to have the Reddit board.) cameras, and sits down with Stephen Colbert. (Ohanian points racked up big wins in 2018; there was also a major victory in Throughout 2018, Big Tech has loomed larger than ever, cast- out that his appearance on “Late Night” in May, while “rad,” San Francisco’s hectic scooter wars when Skip, a scooter-share ing shadows over anyone who has ever idly taken a quiz on wasn’t the first time he’d met the host: Back in the day he went business, was awarded one of just two contracts to operate in Facebook or hopped in an Uber with friends. Faced with on “The Colbert Report,” an experience that he remembers San Francisco. For much of 2018, the standard operating pro- increased scrutiny over their practices and societal impact, busi- being “the hardest interview I’ve ever done … they’re like, cedure among competing scooter companies had been, basical- nesses like Google and Twitter have responded by becoming ‘Don’t try to be funny.’”) ly, just to show up and deal with the details later, that tried-and- even less transparent. Amazon’s yearlong quest to find its sec- Ohanian has always had a flair for the dramatic: In We Are true ask-forgiveness-not-permission startup model. The result ond headquarters accentuated the company’s almost incompre- the Nerds, a book published in October that details the rise, fall, was sidewalks littered with devices and swift action by city hensible influence, reexposed its unsettling working conditions, and rise of Reddit—the title refers to something Ohanian once board of supervisors to pass a law requiring permits. and served as a reminder of the vast gulf between the average hollered in a fit of happiness at a mid-aughts party—Ohanian is “Three companies — Bird, Lime and Spin — unloaded hun- person and the technological entities they rely on. referred to by a colleague as “Chief Bullhorn.” Cutler says that dreds of motorized scooters across San Francisco,” wrote the Ohanian certainly doesn’t exist independently of this; he is, when it comes to the two Initialized founders, “Alexis likes to city’s irritated Municipal Transportation Authority in its deci- after all, a venture capitalist. Still, he lately seems to be moving say that Alexis is the sizzle and Gary is the steak.” In a recent sion to grant permits to none of the three. “I looked at this with in a very different direction: loudly seeking and preaching life interview about personal finance, Ohanian sheepishly revealed delight,” says Ohanian of his competitors’ failed attempts to balance, advocating for paid family leave, urging young that he used to bring elaborate flower bouquets to every first move fast and break things. “For a product and a business that founders to take care of themselves before changing the world, date. As it turned out, this unapologetic corniness turned out requires you to work with governments and communities, it just and being perceptive toward the feelings and opinions of oth- to be an asset when it came to Williams. The couple’s origin seemed so obviously self-destructive.” ers. “I’ve heard from founders who are walking out of investors’ story is circuitous and cute, involving a cameo by Kristen Wiig offices because they went to an all-partner meeting and didn’t and a poolside rat hoax, but hinges almost entirely on see OHANIAN, page 16 16 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARTS & LIVING The Mayor of the Internet Has a New Mission

OHANIAN, from page 15 about,” says Bethell, “was his willingness to March, ruminating about the 10-year anniver- tured pictures of Olympia and Williams along Skip’s deliberately collegial approach, sit- call for up to a year of parental leave in the sary of his mother’s death from brain cancer with the words, “GREATEST MOMMA OF ting down with city planners to draft policy U.S. I think as a business leader, that’s really and the depression he’d felt as a result, he ALL TIME.” It was a touching tribute, and and incorporating community feedback into bold, and shows how much he is putting kids wrote: “As entrepreneurs, we are all so busy also happened to be a great way for Ohanian their scooter design, wasn’t rogue or cool, but and family at the center of his analysis.” ‘crushing it’ that physical health, let alone to do his ongoing due diligence on an it got the job done. Having seen firsthand how debilitating the mental health, is an afterthought for most Initialized portfolio company called AdQuick. As an early-stage venture capital investor, aftermath of a delivery can be, Ohanian gets founders.” He further expanded on this idea By using the product for himself, he was Ohanian loves to be the guy who swoops in to riled up when he discusses the subject. “The in November, speaking at the Web Summit engaging in a practice that is known as “dog- write the “first check” to the enterprising statistic that was most alarming,” he says, conference in Lisbon. “Hustle porn!” he fooding.” (Classic Business Dad move!) souls behind some compelling new startup. “was that one in four American women are yelled. “This is one of the most toxic, danger- But earlier this year, when Ohanian agreed to back to work after two weeks from having a ous things in tech right now,” he said. “This There’s a certain shameless beauty to liaise with one particularly passionate group, kid. And that seems—it’s unconscionable.” idea that unless you are suffering, grinding, much of Ohanian’s strat. Earlier this year, it wasn’t because he had visions of hockey Ohanian has engaged in various forms of working every hour of every day, you’re not when he and his friend Jennifer 8. Lee led a stick growth or tangible return on investment political activism in the past, though the working hard enough.” petition for interracial relationship emoji, the dancing in his head. “Working with Alexis was issues were typically technology-based: In Humans trying to be robots: It’s an instinct effort was also spearheaded by Tinder. really a big deal for a small little startup orga- 2012 he protested the federal privacy bill Ohanian can certainly understand, which is Around Father’s Day this summer, Ohanian nization,” says Katie Bethell, the founder of a SOPA, which would eventually die in the why he knows how damaging it can be. Last made the rounds to talk about fatherhood nonprofit called PL+US that is dedicated to house, and in 2014 he lobbied for net neu- week, when the 34-year-old founder of HQ and fitness in a media blitz sponsored by fighting for paid family leave in the United trality. “He’s got credibility both in the private Trivia was found dead of a suspected drug Johnnie Walker, which led to some casual, States. sector but also just, like, at a national scale in overdose, another young founder, The normal statements like, “When I see that first Bethell knew that getting a response from terms of advocacy,” Cutler says. And he plans Athletic’s Alex Mather, fired off a bunch of little outline of a six-pack, I’ll be raising a Ohanian, to whom she reached out via a to use it: “You’ll probably be seeing me in a tweets about the importance of self-care. “[I] glass and toasting a little bit of Blue Label to friend who had once met him at a dinner, was suit in D.C. next year, making the case for want to talk about founders, failure, and men- celebrate.” Ohanian’s daughter, who is most- a long shot. But she also knew that Ohanian [paid family leave],” Ohanian says. “I really do tal health,” he began. “I’ve been so happy to ly known as Olympia, although he usually was a proud new dad with interest in the sub- think there are folks on both sides of the aisle see @alexisohanian talk about this at length.” calls her “Junior,” has more than half a mil- ject of paid leave, and wanted to see whether in office who want this.” In February, Ohanian pulled off one of his lion followers on Instagram; the account for the famous founder would participate in a characteristically grand gestures. With Olympia’s baby doll, Qai Qai, has amassed speaking engagement about fatherhood and Importance of Mental Health Williams returning to tennis at the tourna- 60,000-plus since late August. “It’s kind of family. He said yes, and the two chatted on For much of the year, Ohanian has also ment in Indian Wells in Southern California, silly,” Ohanian says, “but even watching the stage for more than an hour this summer in been delivering an adjacent message about Ohanian welcomed her back to the game by way that people interact with our child’s doll, San Francisco. “The thing I was most excited mental health, burnout, and perspective. In setting up four billboards along I-10 that fea- there are these moments of real humanity that I think people have been really hungry for this year.” It can be hard to hear that and not cyni- cally wonder about Ohanian’s motivations, or scoff at the idea of the Reddit cofounder wax- ing sentimental about humanity. It can be hard not to side-eye Ohanian when he gets into full “as a father of a daughter …” mode. Even the company Papa — sweet, pure, Recipe empathic Papa — exists not to make inter- generational friends, but to make money. (Insurance companies find the business com- pelling because, by reducing isolation and loneliness, Papa has positive health benefits. Corner This sounds like a win-win until you envision a future in which some poor soul has a health care claim denied because she didn’t spend enough hours relaxing with a Papa Pal that by Christine Vartanian Datian month.) When I describe “hustle porn” to Bethell, she has a thought-provoking per- spective. “I think working moms,” she says, “have been operating under the tyranny of hustle porn since the ’80s.” She paraphrases the writer Amy Westervelt, noting that women are expected to parent like they don’t work and to work like they don’t parent. And Rustic Cauliflower Vegetable Soup viewed that way, it’s possible that Business Dad is just what happens when hustle porn INGREDIENTS reaches middle age. 1 head cauliflower, chopped into medium pieces Still, Ohanian is someone who has real 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped social and economic clout, and he generally wields it thoughtfully. (In the cutthroat world 3 cloves garlic, chopped of startups and seed money and overnight mil- 1/2 cup olive oil (to taste) lionaires, even just the appearance of propri- 2 tablespoons tomato paste ety can feel welcome.) At Initialized, 40 per- Salt, black pepper, paprika, dried basil, thyme, crushed red pepper cent of the investing partners are women, and flakes one of the fund’s recent investments was in an 8 cups water and low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth organization called The Mom Project that 2 cups cooked white beans (cannellini, great northern, or other beans), helps lapsed employees reenter the workforce. drained Initialized recently set up a panel discussion 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped about mental health for its employees. New 2 tablespoons lemon juice mothers and fathers alike are encouraged to 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained take their full 16 weeks of leave, as Ohanian 1 medium baking potato, peeled, cut in chunks did when his daughter was born. 1 cup each diced zucchini, celery, and green beans (or your choice of Ohanian hasn’t seen his wife and daughter vegetables) in person for days, but when I ask what’s new 1 cup dry pasta (elbow, angel hair, etc.) with Junior he describes, in great detail, a 1/4 cup chopped parsley video he just watched of the toddler perform- 3/4 cup ricotta cheese ing her latest silly baby trick: summiting her Finely chopped parsley, shredded basil as garnish high chair, solo. “She’s got a good little kick Olive oil where she can handle stairs,” he explains of the curly-haired girl. “She’ll kick that leg up PREPARATION over the side no problem,” he repeats, “but In a large soup pot, sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil until the onions are I’d never seen a full climb, because you’ve lightly browned. Stir in the tomato paste and add the spices to taste. really got to go vertical. It’s not just kicking Fill the pot to the halfway mark with water and broth, bring to a full boil, and add the cauliflower, white beans, carrots, lemon juice, diced tomatoes, your leg over the side, it’s lifting your knees potato, and choice of vegetables. Add more water (or broth) to cover the vegetables, stir, and cook for 35-45 minutes on medium-low heat until veg- straight up ahead of you and climbing up etables are tender. that high chair.” Add the pasta, parsley, and ricotta cheese, and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring. Pour hot soup into bowls and garnish with parsley and basil; drizzle I recognize his tone: Like most parents, with olive oil. Ohanian speaks of his offspring’s escapades Serves 6-8. in a manner that falls somewhere between a *Christine's recipes have been published in the Fresno Bee newspaper, Sunset magazine, Cooking Light magazine, and at http://www.thearmeni- coach evaluating a quarterback and a ankitchen.com/ mechanic admiring a sweet rig. Maybe at some point a machine will learn how to repli- cate that exactly, but it hasn’t happened yet. For now, it feels like a uniquely human thing. S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 17 ARTS & LIVING CC AA LL EE NN DD AA RR

MASSACHUSETTSCALIFORNIA Greece, France, Russia, Brazil, China and Italy. Donation: Heritage Park’s Endowed Fund for Care. $15 adults; $10 children 12 and under. For further infor- NEW JERSEY JANUARY 25 — The Tekeyan Cultural Association mation, contact the Holy Trinity Church Office, FEBRUARY 9 — The Tekeyan Cultural Association of Metro LA Chapter presents a tribute to Vladimir 617.354.0632. New York, under the aegis of the TCA Board of Yengibaryan, the gold medal winning Armenian boxing JANUARY 20-27 — Armenian Heritage Cruise XXII Directors of the US and Canada, will present a legend. Keynote speaker Avetis Bairamian, sports editor 2019. Western Caribbean Cruise aboard the Royal Valentine’s Dance featuring international Armenian of Nor Or. Remarks by legendary boxers Khoren Injeyan Caribbean’s Allure of the Sea. Traveling to Nassau, singer Andre. The Elan, Lodi, NJ. Tickets are $125 before and Nshan Munchyan. 7 p.m., Glendale Public Library, Cozumel, Roaten, Costa Maya. Cabin Rates, starting from February 2, and $150 after, while tickets for young pro- 222 El Harvard St., Glendale. For more information con- $949/person based on double occupancy, including port fessionals are $100. To reserve seats, visit https://ticket- tact Carl Bardakian at 626-345-9705. charges and ACAA registration fee. Government rates of stripe.com/TCA ValentinesDayDinnerDance. For further FEBRUARY 9 — Ara Dabandjian Quartet of Element $137.45 are additional. Armenian entrainment, information and seating, write to [email protected] Band, Saturday, 8 PM Dinner, 9:30– 10:30 p.m. Ara Armenian cultural presentations, Armenian Festival Day, or call 917-238-3970. Dabandjian Quartet of Element Band. 11 p.m. Tavlou and Belote Tournaments and much more. Call MAY 18 — SAVE THE DATE! A Celebration of Gratitude International Singer Koko Hayitian. Phoenicia Restaurant Travel Group International at 1-561-447-08750 or 1-866- & Hope, honoring His Eminence Archbishop Khajag • 343 N. Central Ave, Glendale. Admission •$80 • 447-0750 ext. 108, contact person Janie. Barsamian and Bishop-elect Fr. Daniel Findikyan. 6:30pm. www.tekeyanla.eventbrite.com. Contact • APRIL 11 — One of the opera world’s hottest stars, Old Tappan Manor, Old Tappan, NJ. For more info, please [email protected] for group seating. Tickets must be Alessandro Safina, will bring in his pop-opera go to www.stnersess.edu. pre-purchased. • No tickets will be sold at the door. rhythms to USA during his upcoming concert tour in OCTOBER 25, 2019 —SAVE THE DATE. Honoring Dr. FEBRUARY 24 — Lecture by Aram Arkun of Boston, April. Safina appeared with Elton John, Cher and Jennifer Taner Akçam. Abajian Hall St. Leon Armenian Executive Director of the Tekeyan Cultural Association Lopez for Queen Elizabeth’s 73rd Royal Variety Complex, Fair Lawn. Sponsored by Knights and of the United States and Canada, on Roupen Herian: Performance. He also performed for the Pope, sang Daughters of Vartan, Under the Auspices of Primate Very “Rescuer of Armenian Orphans.” Sunday, 5 p.m. at the duets with Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, and Rod Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan. Tekeyan Center in Altadena Stewart. Americans first became familiar with Safina APRIL 4 and 7 — One of the opera world’s hottest when he performed Elton John’s “Your Song” with actor stars, Alessandro Safina, will bring in his pop-opera Ewan McGregor for the Oscar-nominated soundtrack of NEW YORK rhythms to USA during his upcoming concert tour in “Moulin Rouge.” Safina will be accompanied by Victor APRIL 9 — One of the opera world’s hottest stars, April. Safina appeared with Elton John, Cher and Jennifer Espinola and the Forbidden Saints. The tour will also fea- Alessandro Safina, will bring in his pop-opera Lopez for Queen Elizabeth’s 73rd Royal Variety ture Armenian Duduk Soloist and Classical Clarinetist rhythms to USA during his upcoming concert tour in Performance. He also performed for the Pope, sang Mher Mnatsakanyan and Bassist Hova Burian will take April. Safina appeared with Elton John, Cher and Jennifer duets with Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, and Rod part. Official FaceBook Page: Lopez for Queen Elizabeth’s 73rd Royal Variety Stewart. Americans first became familiar with Safina https://www.facebook.com/ AlessandroSafinaUSA/ The Performance. He also performed for the Pope, sang when he performed Elton John’s “Your Song” with actor performance will be held at Fillmore Miami Beach in duets with Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, and Rod Ewan McGregor for the Oscar-nominated soundtrack of Miami on Thursday, April 11th. (Times 8:00-9:30pm) “Moulin Rouge.” Safina will be accompanied by Victor Stewart. Americans first became familiar with Safina when he performed Elton John’s “Your Song” with actor Espinola and the Forbidden Saints. The tour will also fea- MASSACHUSETTS ture Armenian Duduk Soloist and Classical Clarinetist Ewan McGregor for the Oscar-nominated soundtrack of “Moulin Rouge.” Safina will be accompanied by Victor Mher Mnatsakanyan and Bassist Hova Burian will take MARCH 2 — St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary Espinola and the Forbidden Saints. The tour will also fea- part. Official FaceBook Page: School (SSAES) PTO will present its annual ture Armenian Duduk Soloist and Classical Clarinetist https://www.facebook.com/ AlessandroSafinaUSA/ fundraiser. We hope you can join us in support of Mher Mnatsakanyan and Bassist Hova Burian will take Official Promo Video: https://www.youtube.com/ SSAES for an evening of food, drinks, art, music and part. Official FaceBook Page: watch?v=DHHKpxTCSSY The performance will be held fun! 7 to 11 p.m., Sanborn House, 15 High St., https://www.facebook.com/ AlessandroSafinaUSA/ at City National Civic in San Jose on Thursday, April 4. Winchester. SSAES is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organiza- Official Promo Video: https://www.youtube.com/ (Times 8:00-9:30pm) tion. All donations are tax-deductible. For additional watch?v=DHHKpxTCSSY The performance will be held https://www1.ticketmaster.com/event/1C005554CB5A77 information and sponsorship please e-mail: at Beacon Theater in New York on Thursday, April 9th. 78 The performance will be held at Dolby Theater in Los [email protected]. Note: This event is 21+. (Times 8:00-9:30pm) Angeles on Sunday, April 7th. (Times 8:00-9:30pm) APRIL 25 — Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Greater https://www1.ticketmaster.com/alessandro-safina-with- https://dolbytheatre.com/events/details/alessandro_safina Boston Presents The Dr. Michael and Joyce victor-espinola-the-forbidden-saints/event/ https://www1.ticketmaster.com/alessandro-safina-with- Kolligian Distinguished Speaker Series: Anthony 3B005546FA735928 victor-espinola-the-forbidden-saints/event/ Ray Hinton, Author of The Sun Does Shine: How I 3B005546FA735928 Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, “Surviving Criminal Justice in America.” Charles and Nevart Talanian Cultural Hall, 145 Brattle Street, Cambridge MASSACHUSETTSFLORIDA Calendar items are free. Entries should not MA 02138. Reception and book signing to follow talk. be longer than 5 lines. Listings should JANUARY 20 — “International Food Festival – A Tour Open and free to the public. For further information, include contact information. Items will be of the World,” sponsored by Holy Trinity Armenian contact the Holy Trinity Church office, 617.354.0632, edited to fit the space, if need be. A photo Church of Greater Boston, Sunday, 12:30 p.m.-2:30 email [email protected], or log onto may be sent with the listing no later than p.m., Charles and Nevart Talanian Cultural Hall, 145 www.htaac.org/calendar/event/622/. Brattle Street, Cambridge MA. Sample the authentic cui- SEPTEMBER 18 – SAVE THE DATE! InterContinental sine from 9 countries: Armenia, Iran/Persia, Lebanon, Hotel, Boston. Extraordinary Benefit for Armenian

Mr. Five Per Cent Brings to Life the Story of Calouste Gulbenkian

GULBENKIAN, from page 12 Gulbenkian looks remarkably like a modern avoid being beholden to any tax authority. Gulbenkian is a major Lisbon art gallery. keen to expand its decrepit economy. By the oligarch, with his high-ranking connections in He owned his portfolio of shares and bonds Conlin had access to the foundation’s 1880s, however, the city was becoming all countries, and his business interests “off- via a Liechtenstein entity called Anstalt Vega, archives, which did not give up their secrets uncomfortable for them, with the start of a shore” which meant he paid only 100 Swiss francs in without a fight. Some of Gulbenkian’s early wave of pogroms that peaked in the infamous And this is why his life has such relevance tax in 1931 – on assets valued at £4.6m correspondence was in Ottoman Turkish, a Armenian genocide of 1915-17. today: he is a relic of a previous age of global- (£288m in today’s money). Much of his empire language no longer spoken, and written in Gulbenkian had moved to London to study, ization, the freewheeling days before 1939 was structured and controlled via the UK, but Armenian characters, an alphabet few people and stayed, becoming a British subject, build- when money flowed around the world as he had no intention of paying for the privi- know. Decoding all this, and making sense of ing his City career, and gradually abandoning unhindered by regulation as it does now, and lege. the worlds that Gulbenkian moved in, is a the family’s merchant business. His life and the powerful were able to seek profits where After the second world war, with capital remarkable feat of scholarship. career was, however, mostly transnational. they liked, and to dodge laws however they felt controls in force and countries trying to Mr. Five Per Cent is written precisely, with “Empires and states, diplomats and states- fit. As his daughter Rita, with whom he had a repair their economies while paying for wel- flashes of dry humor, and Conlin wears the men, spheres of influence … all were distrac- more than usually complex relationship, fare states, there was little tolerance for globe- depth of his research lightly. The story he tells tions to Gulbenkian: to be ignored if possible, explained: “laws are made for everyone but us.” trotting tax dodgers, so Gulbenkian stayed in is one of a businessman playing off great pow- or else coached and co-opted,” Conlin notes. Stripped of anachronisms, Gulbenkian Portugal, unwilling to risk the consequences ers in the Middle East, exploiting loopholes in He liked some countries, particularly looks remarkably like a modern oligarch, with of exposing himself to the revenue services of the world’s financial architecture, avoiding Britain and France, where he kept his art- his high-ranking connections in all countries, any of his former haunts. He flirted with the accountability, making a fortune for himself, works and built a pleasure garden, but avoid- his border-straddling ambitions, his children idea of endowing art galleries in London and and spending it on a life of luxury. ed entanglements that might cost him money. at English schools, and his business interests the US but was concerned by the tax impact Gulbenkian may have been a unique talent of This is why he spent most of the second world in the liminal sphere we now call “offshore”. of visiting either country and, eventually, the a past age, but his heirs are all around us. war in Portugal, then a neutral dictatorship, He used corporate structures to own proper- Gulbenkian Foundation ended up in Portugal. and leaned towards whichever side looked like ty, and skillfully balanced his and his family It is now one of the largest sources of chari- (This review originally appeared in the winning. members’ movements between countries to table donations in Europe, and the Guardian newspaper on January 3.) 18 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR

COMMENTARY Mirror Diaspora Living a Manifestation of Spectator Globalization yet. By Edmond Y. Azadian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s concept for the country’s ties with the diaspora seems to include having an agency which must deal not only with diaspora affairs but also with immigra- EstablishedEstablished 1932 1932 For centuries, when Armenians were exiled from their native tion into the country. land, the perception was that life in the diaspora was the des- An ADLAn Publication ADL Publication Attempts for earlier mass immigration movements proved to tiny of the Armenian people or at best one similar to the plight be catastrophic because of a lack of adequate planning. The of the Jews. But the two world wars and the technological Soviets had a particular format in mind and they organized the advances which ensued made mass mobility a way of life. repatriation of Armenians from Middle Eastern countries at a Different groups which had been forced to abandon their native great cost. Today, the target communities for repatriation are EDITOR Alin K. Gregorian lands formed their own diasporas and faced different challenges mainly Russia, Ukraine and Central Asian countries, where new for their survival. settlers are not particularly welcome and their ties with the ASSISTANT EDITOR The fall of the Soviet Union triggered new waves of migrants homeland are still fresh. Aram Arkun who moved to the West to add a new layer of diasporan life. But For other communities, diasporan living has become a func- the migrants who had left Armenia for Russia, Ukraine or tion of globalization. They visit Armenia or even set up a part- ART DIRECTOR Marc Mgrditchian Central Asia experienced a new derivative of their former time residence there but they continue to consider their home lifestyle, because they did not face the challenges of linguistic base to be in the West. and cultural barriers that their predecessors had. Whether we like it or not, there is permanence in diasporan Early Armenian settlers in the Middle East or Western coun- living, that is why many people are in search of a goal or goals tries had suffered tremendously because the life of exile was for that kind of collective existence. SENIOR EDITORIAL COLUMNIST: traumatic for them. Additionally, they had come to their new Through a natural process, the diaspora has become frag- Edmond Y. Azadian environment with the baggage of genocide and deportation and mented. And it has also lost the kind of leadership it enjoyed in they took relocation as a punishment born of the injustice of the past. Heroes such as General Antranig commanded tremen- CONTRIBUTORS: being uprooted from their ancestral habitat. For the new dous respect and the masses looked to him to provide leader- Florence Avakian, Dr. Haroutiun migrants, the new lands represent new frontiers, new opportu- ship. That caliber of leadership is non-existent today; today, Arzoumanian, Philippe Raffi Kalfayan, nities and the expectation of improved living conditions com- even if Antranig were resurrected, not many people would heed Philip Ketchian, Kevork Keushkerian, pared to their original homes. his advice or his orders. Harut Sassounian, Hagop Vartivarian, In the case of the Armenians — unlike Syrians, Iraqis and The diaspora no longer needs leaders who can think for the Naomi Zeytoonian Libyans — the migration in most cases is on voluntary basis. In masses and issue commands. A new leadership has to emerge CORRESPONDENTS: other words, there is a tremendous degree of choice compared with different qualifications. Analyst Vicken Cheterian believes to their forefa- Armenia - Hagop Avedikian critical thinking Boston - Nancy Kalajian thers. is essential for Los Angeles - Taleen Babayan Now that the the new diaspo- Berlin - Muriel Mirak-Weissbach majority of the ran leadership as Armenians live he writes, “In Contributing Photographers: Jirair Hovsepian outside of their case traditional homeland, they diaspora institu- still relate to that tions are unable homeland and to produce criti- The Armenian Mirror-Spectator is published the majority cal thinking — the weekly, except two weeks in July and the first among them first step towards week of the year, by: believes their strategic vision Baikar Association, Inc. identity is defined and leadership 755 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472-1509 by that home- — they might Telephone: 617-924-4420 land. Armenia soon be overtak- FAX: 617-924-2887 has a vision of en by a new gen- www.mirrorspectator.com the diaspora and eration of E-Mail: [email protected] vice versa. It is activists, philan- For advertising: [email protected] not easy to define thropists and pro- where those fessionals who visions meet or want to engage in c o i n c i d e . c h a n g i n g Therefore, we are A r m e n i a n - in constant quest: Diaspora rela- SUBSCRIPTION RATES : what is the dias- tions and who pora mission and consider the tra- vision? Who rep- ditional institu- U.S.A. $80 a year resents the dias- tions as obso- pora? That latter lete.” Canada $125 a year question particu- Of course, this Other Countries $190 a year larly is asked would mean a when the issue of threat for the tra- compensation from Turkey or settlement with that country are ditional diasporan leadership but also an opportunity or the raised. Also, the same question is raised when the opportunity survival of the entire diaspora, certainly in a new structure. © 2014 The Armenian Mirror-Spectator arises to speak with the Armenian government. Unfortunately, Armenia has not yet developed a political Periodical Class Postage Paid at Boston, MA In recent years, many pundits, scholars and scientists have culture and stable statehood. The simmering war with and additional mailing offices. been writing and discussing the above issues. At times, the sub- Azerbaijan, as well as the general instability in the region will ISSN 0004-234X ject is the diaspora, but more often it is the global Armenians. not allow the formation of a solid statehood for the foresee- Many sensible ideas and theories are being formed and some- able future. Had Armenia attained that stature, the diaspora times initiatives are even taken to get organized. The last case would also have welcomed the Armenian government’s guid- POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The had been adopted by a bona fide benefactor, Vahe Karapetian, ance in its own affairs. Over the centuries, Armenians have Armenian Mirror-Spectator, 755 Mount Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472 in California, who has already drafted bylaws for a would-be amassed communal wealth and assets in certain communities diasporan organization called “Pan-Armenian Unity.” well beyond their competence to manage and maintain on Other than the editorial, views and opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily Some people who undertake such ambitious projects use their own. reflect the policies of the publisher. specific communities as a model. In this case, the California The diaspora has become a rudderless entity no longer able Armenians shape Mr. Karapetian’s vision, although his goal to manage its own destiny. We are at a point where a higher seems to encompass the entire diaspora. authority is needed to determine the destiny, for example, of Global visions for Armenia and the diaspora have been pro- the Armenian Humanitarian College in Calcutta, India. That moted also by Ruben Vardanyan, the Gulbenkian Foundation authority must also have a say in closing down of schools, such Copying for other than personal use or and many other organizations and individual visionaries. as the Melkonian Educational Institute in Cyprus or the real internal reference is prohibited without Whereas independent Armenia’s government is duty-bound estate deals in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Tremendous express permission of the copyright to develop its vision or objective projects as to where Armenia amounts of moral and material are at risk in the diaspora. owner. Address requests for reprints or and Armenians are envisioned to be 50 years from now, we find Organizing the diaspora and determining its future are back issues to: now that the new revolutionary government there has decided beyond the means of its fragmented leadership today. to eliminate the Ministry of Diaspora without any explanations. Armenia still needs decades of development to attain stable Baikar Association, Inc. There were talks that the Ministry of Diasporan Affairs would statehood and extend its power over disintegrating world 755 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472- be absorbed by another ministry, but nothing has come of it Armenian community. 1509 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 19 COMMENTARY World Has Failed to Protect Children in Conflict in 2018: UNICEF

The futures of millions of children living in in the eastern provinces of Tanganyika, February, the group abducted 110 girls and military purposes, denying children access to countries affected by armed conflict are at South Kivu, Nord Kivu and Ituri have had a one boy from a technical college in Dapchi, their right to education and health care. This risk, as warring parties continue to commit devastating impact on children. The response Yobe State. While most of the children have is further fueling a crisis in a country where grave violations against children, and world to the ongoing Ebola outbreak has been seri- since been released, five girls died and one is every 10 minutes, a child dies due to pre- leaders fail to hold perpetrators accountable ously hindered by violence and instability in still being held captive as a slave. ventable diseases, and 400,000 children suf- – UNICEF said in a commentary released on eastern DRC. In addition, an estimated 4.2 In Palestine, over 50 children were killed fer from severe acute malnutrition. December 27, 2018. million children are at risk of severe acute and hundreds more injured this year, many “2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the “Children living in conflict zones around malnutrition (SAM). The situation is com- whilst demonstrating against deteriorating landmark Convention on the Rights of the the world have continued to suffer through pounded by violations of children’s rights, living conditions in Gaza. Children in Child and the 70th anniversary of the Geneva extreme levels of violence over the past 12 including forced recruitment by armed Palestine and Israel have been exposed to Conventions, yet today, more countries are months, and the world has continued to fail groups and sexual abuse. fear, trauma and injuries. embroiled in internal or international conflict them,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF In Iraq, even as fighting has largely subsid- In South Sudan, relentless conflict and than at any other time in the past three Director of Emergency Programmes. “For too ed, four children were killed in November in insecurity throughout the annual lean season decades. Children living through conflict are long, parties to conflict have been commit- the north of the country when the truck they pushed 6.1 million people into extreme among the least likely to be guaranteed their ting atrocities with near-total impunity, and it were travelling to school in came under hunger. Even with the advent of the rainy rights. Attacks on children must end,” is only getting worse. Much more can and attack. Children and families returning to season, more than 43 per cent of the popula- Fontaine said. must be done to protect and assist children.” their homes in areas previously impacted by tion remain food insecure. While the promise UNICEF calls on all warring parties to Children living in countries at war have heavy violence continue to be exposed to the of a revitalized peace-agreement offers a glim- abide by their obligations under internation- come under direct attack, have been used as danger of unexploded ordnance. Thousands mer of hope for children, reports of extreme al law to immediately end violations against human shields, killed, maimed or recruited to of families remain displaced and now face the violence against women and children contin- children and the targeting of civilian infras- fight. Rape, forced marriage and abduction additional threats of freezing winter temper- ue, most recently in Bentiu, where more than tructure, including schools, hospitals and have become standard tactics in conflicts atures and flash floods. 150 women and girls reported suffering hor- water infrastructure. UNICEF also calls on from Syria to Yemen, and from the In the Lake Chad basin, ongoing conflict, rific sexual assault. states with influence over parties to conflict Democratic Republic of the Congo to Nigeria, displacement and attacks on schools, teach- In Somalia, more than 1,800 children were to use that influence to protect children. South Sudan and Myanmar. ers and other education facilities have put recruited by parties to the conflict in the first “Much more needs to be done to prevent Over the course of 2018: the education of 3.5 million children at risk. nine months of the year, with 1,278 children wars, and to end the many disastrous armed In Afghanistan, violence and bloodshed Today in northeast Nigeria, the Lake region abducted. conflicts devastating children’s lives. Yet even remain a daily occurrence, with some 5,000 chil- of Chad, extreme north of Cameroon and In Syria, between January and September, as wars continue, we must never accept dren killed or maimed within the first three Diffa region of Niger, at least 1,041 schools the UN verified the killing of 870 children – the attacks against children. We must hold war- quarters of 2018, equal to all of 2017, and chil- are closed or non-functional due to violence, highest number ever in the first nine months of ring parties to their obligation to protect chil- dren making up 89 per cent of civilian casual- fear of attacks, or unrest, affecting nearly any year since the start of the conflict in 2011. dren. Otherwise, it is children, their families ties from explosive remnants of war. 445,000 children. Attacks continued throughout the year, includ- and their communities who will continue to Cameroon has seen an escalation of the A recent surge in violence in the border ing the killing of 30 children in the eastern vil- suffer the devastating consequences, for now, conflict in the North-West and South-West region between Mali, Burkina Faso andNiger lage of Al Shafa in November. and for years to come,” Fontaine said. regions of the country, with schools, students has left 1,478 schools closed. In eastern Ukraine, more than four years of Across all these countries, UNICEF works and teachers often coming under attack. In In Myanmar, the UN continues to receive conflict have taken a devastating toll on the with partners to provide the most vulnerable November, more than 80 people, including reports of ongoing violations of the rights of education system, destroying and damaging children with health, nutrition, education many children, were abducted from a school Rohingya remaining in northern Rakhine hundreds of schools and forcing 700,000 chil- and child protection services. For example, in in Nkwen, in the north-west of the country State, which include allegations of killings, dren to learn in fragile environments, amidst October, UNICEF helped to secure the and released a few days later. To date, 93 vil- disappearances and arbitrary arrests. There volatile fighting and the dangers posed by release of 833 children recruited into armed lages have allegedly been partially or totally are also widespread restrictions on the rights unexploded weapons of war. The situation is forces in northeast Nigeria, and are working burned due to conflict in the areas, with to freedom of movement and barriers to particularly severe for 400,000 children who these children to reintegrate them into their many children experiencing extreme levels of access health and education including in cen- live within 20km of the “contact line”, which communities. Since conflict broke out in violence. tral Rakhine State. Ensuring children have divides the government and non-government- South Sudan five years ago, UNICEF has In the Central African Republic, a dramat- access to quality education and other essen- controlled areas and where shelling and reunited almost 6,000 unaccompanied and ic resurgence in fighting has enveloped much tial services will avert a ‘lost generation’ of extreme levels of mine-contamination pose a separated children with their families. In of the country, with two out of three children Rohingya children; otherwise, they will lack lethal threat. Bangladesh, in 2018, UNICEF reached thou- in need of humanitarian assistance. the skills they need to contribute to society. And in Yemen, the UN has verified 1,427 sands of Rohingya refugee children with men- In the Democratic Republic of the In northeast Nigeria, armed groups, includ- children killed or maimed in attacks, includ- tal health and psychosocial support. In Iraq, Congo, inter-ethnic violence and clashes ing Boko Haram factions, continue to target ing an ‘unconscionable’ attack on a school UNICEF is working with partners to provide between security forces and armed girls, who are raped, forced to become wives bus in Sa’ada. Schools and hospitals have specialized services to women and children groups/militia in the Great Kasai-region and of fighters or used as ‘human bombs’. In come under frequent attack or been used for affected by gender-based violence. Surgeon, Missionary Dr. Tom Catena Named Chair of Aurora Humanitarian Initiative

YEREVAN — The Co-Founders of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative have announced Dr. Tom Catena, an American physician and Catholic missionary from Amsterdam, NY has joined the organization as Chair. The appointment was announced during the Aurora Dialogues in Berlin. Dr. Catena joins the organization dur- ing a period of significant growth and will be responsible for engaging key humanitarian stakeholders, working with global partners and overseeing Aurora’s educational and outreach projects, including the internationally recognized, Aurora Prize. Aurora was established three years ago, and has impacted the lives of displaced individuals, children in conflict zones, refugees, migrants and vulnerable citizens around the world. Since 2016, the Aurora Prize has award- ed over $3.3 million to unsung heroes and has supported 23 projects in 11 areas of humanitarian assistance globally. This year, the Aurora Prize supported over 375,000 Rohingya refugees. A further 62 students from conflict areas have been recipients of the Aurora Gratitude Scholarships pro- work in the Nuba Mountains in parallel with his new respon- the lives of the Nuba people in Sudan. I believe in the sim- gram to study at United World Colleges around the world sibilities with the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. ple yet powerful force of humanity in addressing today’s crit- and the American University of Armenia. According to a joint statement from the Co-Founders of ical humanitarian challenges and will remain committed to In May 2017, Catena was named as the Aurora Prize the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative: “We are delighted to elevating the Gratitude in Action philosophy in my new role Laureate for his courageous work in the Nuba Mountains. welcome the first Chair of the organization. Dr. Tom Catena by supporting Aurora’s work empowering those in desper- Since 2008, he has served more than half a million people truly embodies the spirit of Aurora and will be a driving ate need to create their own futures.” as the sole surgeon at the Mother of Mercy Hospital, an force in taking our global vision forward by helping to In 2015, Catena was recognized by Time Magazine as one institution he has been dedicated to since. He has been empower individuals to embrace our shared humanity and of its “100 Most Influential People” in the world. He has based in Sudan’s war-ravaged territory for the last decade express gratitude to those making an impact. It is gratifying been recognized with Honorary Doctorates from Brown where humanitarian aid is restricted. Known as “Dr Tom” by that the 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate is also the first chair University and Yerevan State Medical University. He also for- locals, he provides treatment for people suffering ailments of this organization.” merly served as a flight surgeon with the US Navy. and war wounds. He will continue his role as Medical Catena said: “It is a true honor to chair the Aurora As part of the leadership team changes at Aurora, the Director at the hospital working with a team of doctors, Humanitarian Initiative – I am grateful for the impact of the Executive Board has also appointed Dr. Hayk Demoyan, for- sourced by the Catholic Medical Mission Board in coopera- Aurora Prize on my life and the financial support provided mer director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute as tion with the African Mission Healthcare Foundation, to to the Mother of Mercy Hospital that has helped transform the Chief Operating Officer of the Initiative. 20 S ATURDAY, J ANUARY 1 2 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR

Armenian Assembly Honors Longtime Capital Region Council Co-Chairs

WASHINGTON — The Armenian Assembly of Armenian Genocide. One of her highlights with Ceremonies, and introduced the guest speakers Mikayelyan, sang Charles Anzavour’s Pour Toi, America and its Capital Region Council hosted the Armenian Assembly was being part of its for the evening, including the Republic of Armenie in the Armenian translated version of its Annual Holiday Reception last month at the 2004 Mission Trip to Armenia, led by Totah. As Armenia’s Embassy to the United States Qez Hamar, Hayastan. Embassy of the Republic of Armenia. The stand- one of the pillars of the Armenian community Deputy Chief of Mission, Ara Margarian, and Following the musical performances, Assembly ing room only event honored long-time Co- in Washington, Andonian chaired the St. Mary Aram Bakshian, Jr., who spoke about “Armenia Executive Director Bryan Ardouny briefed the Chairs of its Capital Region Council, Clara Armenian Apostolic Church Women’s Guild, and the Armenian Diaspora: Yesterday, Today, audience on the Assembly’s activities and accom- Andonian and Doris George, for their decades sang in the choir, and taught Sunday School for and Tomorrow.” plishments this past year as well as the chal- of hard work, “In Appreciation of Extraordinary six years. She is a member of the Ararat Avak The evening continued with a musical tribute lenges ahead in the 116th Congress. He also Senior Society, as well as to the late Charles Aznavour, with perfor- highlighted the Assembly’s successful National an active member of the mances by Edita Kalayjian, who sang Armenian Advocacy Conference and the need to continue Daughters of Vartan, Waltz by Den Gharibian and Ave Maria by our efforts to make our voices heard on Capitol where she served as Grand Charles Aznavour; she was accompanied by Hill. Both Ardouny and Totah encouraged the Matron on occasion. Christine Kharazian on violin and Duff Davis audience to contact their Representatives, espe- In 1973, Doris George on acoustic guitar. Victoria Petrosyan sang cially the incoming freshman Members, to edu- and her husband, Robert, Hayastan by Armen Smbatyan, accompanied by cate them on the importance of strengthening joined the Armenian Naira Babayan. Her daughter, Karine US-Armenia and other key issues. Assembly, and, over the years, the former served the organization in differ- ent capacities. Doris was a Yazidi Women in Europe Resorting to Suicide member of the Washington, D.C. Chapter To Cope with Alienation and Trauma of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), BERLIN — Increasing numbers of Yazidi women are committing suicide after moving served on the Board of the to Europe from their war-torn homeland. Experts not that this is caused by a number of Armenian Rights Council factors, including coping with war trauma while living in a foreign country and the alien- of America, and was ation they feel from their previously tight-knit community. Chairwoman of the The rate of suicide among Yazidi women has increased in recent years, particularly in Yeretskin Anahid Kalayjian awarded Armenian Assembly’s “Volunteer of the Year by Board Member Annie Simonian Totah Daughters of Vartan. She Germany, according to Sabriye Sevgat, who works at the Yazidi Women’s Council in also serves on the Board of Germany. the Armenian American “Suicides can occur in every age group of women and in every social group. There is Commitment and Unwavering Support.” Cultural Association. no limitation. Suicides were more common among young people five years ago. Then it “We greatly appreciate the tireless dedica- After 20 years of working together, Andonian stopped. But it’s been happening again over the last year. Most of them are young women tion and commitment of Clara Andonian and and George completed their terms as Co-Chairs of coming to Europe after the war. But there have been women who killed themselves here Doris George — two wonderful individuals who the Assembly Capital Region Council handing over for many years,” Sevgat told Ahval. have given generously of their time and talent the reins to the new incoming Co-Chairs Louisa “My body is here, but my soul is there. I miss it a lot. I am not too fond of the air here to help the Armenian Assembly achieve its mis- Baghdasarian and Marguerite Satian. [in Germany]. I don’t like it here,” Mecbure Dündar, a Yazidi woman who has been resid- sion and goals. Clara and Doris are both one-of- Also at the Reception, Yeretskin Anahid ing in Germany since she was 13, said. a-kind members, and we are grateful for their Kalayjian was awarded the Armenian Dündar added she could never belong in Europe. support and leadership,” stated Assembly Assembly’s “Volunteer of the Year” for her “There’s everything here except the spirit of the human brain. We belong there. I go Board Member Annie Simonian Totah. efforts in supporting and recruiting new mem- to my hometown for the holidays. But there’s a life waiting for me here. I come back Andonian has been involved with the bers for the organization. because I have to. When I come back, I come back crying.” Armenian Assembly for over 42 years, serving Armenian National Institute (ANI) Director Sevgat stated that even though the Yazidi community in Germany dates back to the in areas of advocacy for the affirmation of the Dr. Rouben Adalian was the Master of 1960s, the community’s traditional culture has continued to survive, causing a contra- diction for Yazidi women. While Yazidi women in Europe look contemporary and strong on the outside, many have a different life at home. “When you come home, you have another personality. You live in one country, but you live in another culture. Our society is not an open one. Some topics remain taboo. For example, pre-marital relations. If something happens [between a couple], then the family name becomes tarnished.” According to Dündar, domestic violence is increasingly becoming a problem for Yazidi families in Europe in recent years due to a breakdown in community ties. “There is sometimes violence in the family. In the past, our communication was better. However, this is not the case for the new generation. Everyone is in their own world and alone. They find themselves helpless. They don’t see respect and love. There is a coldness in relations between families. Therefore, suicides might occur. They do this because they feel alone. But we have to get in touch with and touch each other.” A breakdown in Yazidi community relations in Europe has exacerbated living condi- tions among Yazidi women who immigrate to Europe from war-torn regions. The Yazidi community once occupied areas in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iran, however, have been large- ly displaced through attacks and the enslavement of Yazidis by the militant group Islamic State (IS). In August 2014, the Islamic State attacked Mount Sinjar, kicking off an assault on the community that many estimate resulted in the deaths of between 2,000-5,000 Yazidis and the kidnapping of more than 7,000 Yazidi people. Of these, women and children were rounded up to be used as IS slaves. Gül Güzel, who has taken part in several studies about Yazidi woman held in IS cap- tivity, points out that being sexually assaulted is enough for women to be excluded from Armenian Assembly Board Member Annie Simonian Totah awarding Clara Andonian and Doris the Yazidi community. George awards “In Appreciation of Extraordinary Commitment and Unwavering Support” “They are excommunicated from their own community. Women are going through massive trauma. They are completely isolated here. They are here but their souls are there in their own land. Yazidi women don’t trust people who come from outside, and most of the things they’ve been through stay with them,” according to Güzel. “The women kidnapped by IS were referred to as ‘’contaminated.’’ We mounted a mas- sive resistance for Yazidi women during the massacres. We revolted against this word. Most of the Yazidi women said ‘’if those women have been contaminated, then we have been, too.’’ Men didn’t put up a fight in the face of this female resistance.” One major reason for the isolation felt by Yazidi women, is that women who have been enslaved and assaulted by IS are seen as being “defiled,” Sevgat noted. Sociologist Fle Jiyan noted that the Yazidi women who come to Europe are unable to both simultaneously overcome this trauma and adapt to this new lifestyle in Europe, which is what has lead to the recent uptick in suicides. “This captivity completely changes their lives. When they get to Europe, a new life begins. It’s better for them to go back to their old lives for their recovery. I think that the suicides are not because of their old lives but because they’ve started new ones. If they stay close to home, then they’ll recover more quickly. But they don’t go back there but to Europe for a new life here. They need to get used to a new life in Europe. They can get used to a new life, but they can’t survive their trauma here,” Jiyan stressed. Sevgat agreed that Yazidi women cannot process the trauma they experienced at the hands of IS. “Many women suffered severe torture. Their children were killed in front of them. Many women who come here don’t accept psychological support. They live with everything they’ve been through. This is a heavy burden. In this case, this is an important cause that triggers suicides,” Sevgat explained. Musical Performances by Duff Davis, Christine Kharazian, Karine Mikayelyan, Naira Babayan, (This analysis originally appeared in Ahval.) Victoria Petrosyan, and Edita Kalayjian